Editing Charles Tupper (section)

===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"/>