Editing Charles Tupper (section)

==Prime Minister, May–July 1896==
[[Image:CharlesandLadyTupper.jpg|thumb|left|Sir Charles and [[Frances Tupper|Lady Tupper]], October 1896]]
Parliament was dissolved on April 24, 1896, and the [[7th Canadian Ministry]] with Tupper as prime minister was sworn in on May 1<ref name="ODNB"/> making him one of only three prime ministers to not sit in Parliament while prime minister. Tupper remains the oldest person ever to become Canadian prime minister, at age 74.

Throughout the [[1896 Canadian federal election|1896 election]] campaign, Tupper argued that the real issue of the election was the future of Canadian industry and insisted that Conservatives needed to unite to defeat the [[Patrons of Industry]].<ref name="ODNB"/> However, the Conservatives were so bitterly divided over the Manitoba Schools Question that wherever he spoke, he was faced with a barrage of criticism, most notably at a two-hour address he gave at [[Massey Hall]] in Toronto, which was constantly interrupted by the crowd.<ref name="ODNB"/>

Wilfrid Laurier, on the other hand, modified the traditional Liberal stance on free trade and embraced aspects of the National Policy.<ref name="ODNB"/>

In the end, the Conservatives won the most votes in the 1896 election (48.2 percent of the votes, in comparison to 41.4 percent for the Liberals). The Conservatives tallied about 10,000 more actual votes on election day across the country, but parties of that time often decided not to put up the money to run candidates and finance their campaigns. The Liberals only ran 192 candidates in the 213 ridings (the Conservatives ran 207); in Ontario, 17 seats had no Liberal candidate, as the Liberal Party endorsed several candidates of the Patrons of Industry, a farmer-labour movement. The Patrons won over 32,000 votes in Ontario and elected two members who subsequently caucused with the Liberal government. As well, two Liberal candidates in Quebec were elected by acclamation, and therefore received no actual votes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last= |first= |date= |title=J. Murray Beck, Pendulum of Power: Canada's Federal Elections. Scarborough, Ont.: Prentice-Hall, 1968, pp. 442. |url= |journal= |volume= |issue= |pages= |doi= |issn=}}</ref> The Conservatives captured only about half of the seats in [[English Canada]], while Laurier's Liberals won a landslide victory in [[Quebec]], where Tupper's reputation as an ardent [[imperialist]] was a major handicap.<ref name="ODNB"/> Tupper had tried and failed to persuade [[Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau]] to return to active politics as his [[Quebec lieutenant]].<ref name="ODNB"/>

Although Laurier had clearly won the election on June 24, Tupper initially refused to cede power, insisting that Laurier would be unable to form a government despite the Liberal Party's having won 55 percent of the seats in the House of Commons.<ref name="ODNB"/> However, when Tupper attempted to make appointments as prime minister, Lord Aberdeen refused to act on Tupper's advice. Tupper then resigned and Aberdeen invited Laurier to form a government.<ref name="ODNB"/> Tupper maintained that Lord Aberdeen's actions were [[unconstitutional]].<ref name="ODNB"/>

Tupper's 68 days are the  [[List of prime ministers of Canada|shortest term of all prime ministers of Canada]]. His government never faced a Parliament.

His portrait, by [[Victor Albert Long]], hangs in the Parliament Buildings.