Editing Charles Tupper (section)

===Later years as High Commissioner, 1888–1895===
[[Image:The Old Flag! The Old Guard and the Old Principle!.jpg|150px|thumb|left|"The Old Flag! The Old Guard and the Old Principle!" Conservative Party election poster, with Charles Tupper and Hugh John Macdonald, during the [[1891 Canadian federal election|1891 election]]]]
For Tupper's work on the Joint Commission, Joseph Chamberlain arranged for Tupper to become a [[Baronetage of the United Kingdom|baronet of the United Kingdom]], and the [[Tupper Baronetcy]] was created on September 13, 1888.<ref name="ODNB"/>

In 1889, tensions were high between the U.S. and Canada when the U.S. banned Canadians from engaging in the [[seal hunt]] in the [[Bering Sea]] as part of the ongoing [[Bering Sea Dispute]] between the U.S. and Britain.<ref name="ODNB"/> Tupper traveled to [[Washington, D.C.]], to represent Canadian interests during the negotiations and was something of an embarrassment to the British diplomats.<ref name="ODNB"/>

When, in 1890, the provincial secretary of Newfoundland, [[Robert Bond]], negotiated a fisheries treaty with the U.S. that Tupper felt was not in Canada's interest, Tupper successfully persuaded the British government (then under Lord Salisbury's second term) to reject the treaty.<ref name="ODNB"/>

Tupper remained an active politician during his time as High Commissioner, which was controversial because diplomats are traditionally expected to be nonpartisan.<ref name="ODNB"/> (Tupper's successor as High Commissioner, [[Donald Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal|Donald Smith]] would succeed in turning the High Commissioner's office into a nonpartisan office.) As such, Tupper returned to Canada to campaign on behalf of the Conservatives' National Policy during the [[1891 Canadian federal election|1891 election]].<ref name="ODNB"/>

[[Image:Tupperfamily.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Charles Tupper with his son [[Charles Hibbert Tupper]] and his grandson, March 1891]]
Tupper continued to be active in the Imperial Federation League, though after 1887, the League was split over the issue of regular colonial contribution to imperial defense.<ref name="ODNB"/> As a result, the League was dissolved in 1893, for which some people blamed Tupper.<ref name="ODNB"/>

With respect to the British Empire, Tupper advocated a system of mutual preferential trading. In a series of articles in ''[[Nineteenth Century (periodical)|Nineteenth Century]]'' in 1891 and 1892, Tupper denounced the position that Canada should unilaterally reduce its tariff on British goods.<ref name="ODNB"/> Rather, he argued that any such tariff reduction should only come as part of a wider trade agreement in which tariffs on Canadian goods would also be reduced at the same time.<ref name="ODNB"/>

John A. Macdonald's death in 1891 opened the possibility of Tupper's replacing him as [[Prime Minister of Canada]], but Tupper enjoyed life in London and decided against returning to Canada.<ref name="ODNB"/> He recommended that his son support [[John Sparrow David Thompson|John Thompson]]'s prime ministerial bid.<ref name="ODNB"/>