Editing Charles Tupper (section)

==Career in the Parliament of Canada, 1867–1884==

===Fighting the Anti-Confederates, 1867–1869===
The [[Canadian federal election|first elections]] for the new [[House of Commons of Canada]] were held in August–September 1867. Tupper ran as a member for the new federal riding of [[Cumberland (federal electoral district)|Cumberland]] and won his seat.<ref name="ODNB"/> However, he was the only pro-Confederation candidate to win a seat from Nova Scotia in the [[1st Canadian Parliament]], with Joseph Howe and the Anti-Confederates winning every other seat.<ref name="ODNB"/>

[[Image:CharlesTupper1870.jpg|thumb|right|Tupper in April 1870]]
As an ally of John A. Macdonald and the [[Liberal-Conservative Party]], it was widely believed that Tupper would have a place in the first [[Cabinet of Canada]].<ref name="ODNB"/> However, when Macdonald ran into difficulties in organizing this cabinet, Tupper stepped aside in favour of [[Edward Kenny]].<ref name="ODNB"/> Instead, Tupper set up a medical practice in [[Ottawa]] and was elected as the first president of the new [[Canadian Medical Association]], a position he held until 1870.<ref name="ODNB"/>

In the November 1867 provincial elections in Nova Scotia, the pro-Confederation Hiram Blanchard was defeated by the leader of the Anti-Confederation Party, [[William Annand]]. Given the unpopularity of Confederation within Nova Scotia, Joseph Howe traveled to London in 1868 to attempt to persuade the British government (headed by the Earl of Derby, and then after February 1868 by [[Benjamin Disraeli]]) to allow Nova Scotia to secede from Confederation.<ref name="ODNB"/> Tupper followed Howe to London where he successfully lobbied British politicians against allowing Nova Scotia to secede.<ref name="ODNB"/>

Following his victory in London, Tupper proposed a reconciliation with Howe: in exchange for Howe's agreeing to stop fighting against the union, Tupper and Howe would be allies in the fight to protect Nova Scotia's interests within Confederation.<ref name="ODNB"/> Howe agreed to Tupper's proposal and in January 1869 entered the Canadian cabinet as [[President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada]].<ref name="ODNB"/>

With the outbreak of the [[Red River Rebellion]] in 1869, Tupper was distressed to find that his daughter Emma's husband was being held hostage by [[Louis Riel]] and the rebels.<ref name="ODNB"/> He rushed to the northwest to rescue his son-in-law.<ref name="ODNB"/>
[[Image:TupperWorking1871.jpg|150px|thumb|left|Tupper in November 1871]]

===President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, 1870–1872===
When Howe's health declined the next year, Tupper finally entered the [[1st Canadian Ministry]] by becoming Privy Council president in June 1870.<ref name="ODNB"/>

The next year was dominated by a dispute with the United States regarding US access to the Atlantic [[fisheries]].<ref name="ODNB"/> Tupper thought that the British should restrict American access to these fisheries so that they could negotiate from a position of strength.<ref name="ODNB"/> When Prime Minister Macdonald travelled to represent Canada's interests at the negotiations leading up to the [[Treaty of Washington (1871)]], Tupper served as Macdonald's liaison with the federal cabinet.<ref name="ODNB"/>

===Minister of Inland Revenue, 1872–1873===
On January 19, 1872, Tupper's service as Privy Council president ended and he became [[Minister of Inland Revenue (Canada)|Minister of Inland Revenue]].<ref name="ODNB"/>

Tupper led the Nova Scotia campaign for the Liberal-Conservative party during the [[1872 Canadian federal election|Canadian federal election of 1872]].<ref name="ODNB"/> His efforts paid off when Nova Scotia returned not a single Anti-Confederate [[Member of Parliament (Canada)|Member of Parliament]] to the [[2nd Canadian Parliament]], and 20 of Nova Scotia's 21 MPs were Liberal-Conservatives.<ref name="ODNB"/> (The Liberal-Conservative Party changed its name to the [[Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942)|Conservative Party]] in 1873.)

===Minister of Customs, 1873–1874===
[[Image:CharlesTupper1873.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Tupper in August 1873]]
In February 1873, Tupper was shifted from Inland Revenue to become [[Minister of Customs]], and in this position he was successful in having [[Imperial unit|British weights and measures]] adopted as the uniform standard for the united colonies.<ref name="ODNB"/>

He would not hold this post for long, however, as Macdonald's government was rocked by the [[Pacific Scandal]] throughout 1873. In November 1873, the 1st Canadian Ministry was forced to resign and was replaced by the [[2nd Canadian Ministry]] headed by [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal]] [[Alexander Mackenzie (politician)|Alexander Mackenzie]].

===Years in Opposition, 1874–1878===
Tupper had not been involved in the Pacific Scandal, but he nevertheless continued to support Macdonald and his Conservative colleagues both before and after the [[1874 Canadian federal election|1874 election]].<ref name="ODNB"/> The 1874 election was disastrous for the Conservatives, and in Nova Scotia, Tupper was one of only two Conservative MPs returned to the [[3rd Canadian Parliament]].<ref name="ODNB"/>

Though Macdonald stayed on as Conservative leader, Tupper now assumed a more prominent role in the Conservative Party and was widely seen as Macdonald's heir apparent.<ref name="ODNB"/> He led Conservative attacks on the Mackenzie government throughout the 3rd Parliament.<ref name="ODNB"/> The Mackenzie government attempted to negotiate a new [[free trade agreement]] with the United States to replace the [[Canadian–American Reciprocity Treaty]] which the U.S. had abrogated in 1864.<ref name="ODNB"/> When Mackenzie proved unable to achieve reciprocity, Tupper began shifting toward [[protectionism]] and became a proponent of the [[National Policy]] which became a part of the Conservative [[Party platform|platform]] in 1876.<ref name="ODNB"/> The sincerity of Tupper's conversion to the protectionist cause was doubted at the time, however: according to one apocryphal story, when Tupper came to the 1876 debate on [[Minister of Finance (Canada)|Finance Minister]] [[Richard John Cartwright]]'s budget, he was prepared to advocate [[free trade]] if Cartwright had announced that the Liberals had shifted their position and were now supporting protectionism.<ref name="ODNB"/>

Tupper was also deeply critical of Mackenzie's approach to railways, arguing that completion of the [[Canadian Pacific Railway]], which would link [[British Columbia]] (which entered Confederation in 1871) with the rest of Canada, should be a stronger government priority than it was for Mackenzie.<ref name="ODNB"/> This position also became an integral part of the Conservative platform.

As on previous occasions when he was not in cabinet, Tupper was active in practicing medicine during the 1874–78 stint in Opposition, though he was dedicating less and less of his time to medicine during this period.<ref name="ODNB"/>

Tupper was a councillor of the [[Oxford Military College]] in [[Cowley, Oxfordshire|Cowley]] and [[Oxford]], [[Oxfordshire]] from 1876 to 1896.

===Minister of Public Works, 1878–1879===
During the [[1878 Canadian federal election|1878 election]] Tupper again led the Conservative campaign in Nova Scotia.<ref name="ODNB"/> The Conservatives under Macdonald won a resounding majority in the election, in the process capturing 16 of Nova Scotia's 21 seats in the [[4th Canadian Parliament]].<ref name="ODNB"/>

With the formation of the [[3rd Canadian Ministry]] on October 17, 1878, Tupper became [[Minister of Public Works (Canada)|Minister of Public Works]].<ref name="ODNB"/> His top priority was completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which he saw as "an Imperial Highway across the Continent of America entirely on British soil".<ref name="ODNB"/> This marked a shift in Tupper's position: although he had long argued that completion of the railway should be a major government priority, while Tupper was in Opposition, he argued that the railway should be privately constructed; he now argued that the railway ought to be completed as a [[public work]], partly because he believed that the private sector could not complete the railroad given the [[recession]] which gripped the country throughout the 1870s.<ref name="ODNB"/>

===Minister of Railways and Canals, 1879–1884===
In May 1879, Macdonald decided that completion of the railway was such a priority that he created a new ministry to focus on railways and canals, and Tupper became Canada's first [[Minister of Railways and Canals (Canada)|Minister of Railways and Canals]].<ref name="ODNB"/>

Tupper's motto as Minister of Railways and Canals was "Develop our resources".<ref name="ODNB"/> He stated "I have always supposed that the great object, in every country, and especially in a new country, was to draw as [many] [[Capitalism|capitalists]] into it as possible."<ref name="ODNB"/>

Tupper traveled to London in summer 1879 to attempt to persuade the British government (then headed by [[Benjamin Disraeli|the Earl of Beaconsfield]] in his second term as prime minister) to [[guarantee]] a [[Government bond|bond]] sale to be used to construct the railway.<ref name="ODNB"/> He was not successful, though he did manage to purchase 50,000 tons of steel rails at a bargain price.<ref name="ODNB"/> Tupper's old friend Sandford Fleming oversaw the railway construction, but his inability to keep costs down led to political controversy, and Tupper was forced to remove Fleming as Chief Engineer in May 1880.<ref name="ODNB"/>

1879 also saw Tupper made a [[Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George]], and thus entitled to use the postnominal letters "KCMG".<ref name="ODNB"/>

[[Image:Tupper1881.jpg|thumb|left|Tupper in September 1881]]
In 1880, [[George Stephen, 1st Baron Mount Stephen|George Stephen]] approached Tupper on behalf of a [[syndicate]] and asked to be allowed to take over construction of the railway.<ref name="ODNB"/> Convinced that Stephen's syndicate was up to the task, Tupper convinced the cabinet to back the plan at a meeting in June 1880 and, together with Macdonald, negotiated a contract with the syndicate in October.<ref name="ODNB"/> The syndicate successfully created the [[Canadian Pacific Railway]] in February 1881 and assumed construction of the railway shortly thereafter.<ref name="ODNB"/>

In the following years, Tupper was a vocal supporter of the CPR during its competition with the [[Grand Trunk Railway]].<ref name="ODNB"/> In December 1883 he worked out a rescue plan for the CPR after it faced financial difficulties and persuaded his party and Parliament to accept the plan.<ref name="ODNB"/>

In addition to his support for completion of the CPR, Tupper also actively managed the existing railways in the colonies.<ref name="ODNB"/> Shortly after becoming minister in 1879, he forced the [[Intercolonial Railway]] to lower its freight rates, which had been a major grievance of Maritime business interests.<ref name="ODNB"/> He then forced the Grand Trunk Railway to sell its [[Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec|Rivière-du-Loup]] line to the Intercolonial Railway to complete a link between Halifax and the [[St. Lawrence Seaway]].<ref name="ODNB"/> He also refused to give the CPR [[running rights]] over the Intercolonial Railway, though he did convince the CPR to build the Short Line from Halifax to Saint John.<ref name="ODNB"/>

In terms of canals, Tupper's time as Minister of Railways and Canals is notable for large expenditures on widening the [[Welland Canal]] and deepening the [[Saint Lawrence Seaway]].<ref name="ODNB"/>

====Deterioration of relationship with Macdonald and appointment as High Commissioner====
A rift developed between Tupper and Macdonald in 1879 over Sandford Fleming, whom Tupper supported but whom Macdonald wanted removed as Chief Engineer of the CPR.<ref name="ODNB"/> This rift was partially healed and Tupper and Macdonald managed to work together during the negotiations with George Stephen's syndicate in 1880, but the men were no longer close, and Tupper no longer seemed to be Macdonald's heir apparent.<ref name="ODNB"/> By early 1881 Tupper had determined that he should leave the cabinet.<ref name="ODNB"/> In March 1881 he asked Macdonald to appoint him as Canada's [[High Commissioner (Commonwealth)|High Commissioner]] in London. Macdonald initially refused, and [[Alexander Tilloch Galt]] retained the High Commissioner's post.<ref name="ODNB"/>

During the [[1882 Canadian federal election|1882 election]], Tupper campaigned only in Nova Scotia (he normally campaigned throughout the country): he was again successful, with the Conservatives winning 14 of Nova Scotia's 21 seats in the [[5th Canadian Parliament]].<ref name="ODNB"/> The 1882 election was personally significant for Tupper because it saw his son, [[Charles Hibbert Tupper]], elected as MP for [[Pictou (federal electoral district)|Pictou]].<ref name="ODNB"/>