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Alexander Tilloch Galt
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| Biography: Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt |
Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt (1817-1893) was a Canadian politician responsible for the financial provisions of Canadian federation as well as for some of Canada's first steps in diplomacy.
Alexander Galt was born in Chelsea, London, on Sept. 6, 1817, the youngest son of John Galt, the Scottish novelist. His father was the agent for a Canadian land company, and young Galt himself went to Canada in 1835 as a clerk in the British American Land Company, which owned half a million acres of land in the Eastern Townships, between the St. Lawrence River and the United States border. He rose to become secretary and later commissioner of the company. Through this work he became interested in railway promotion, first in the region owned by the company and, later, with the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway, in the St. Lawrence Basin.
Galt entered politics in 1849, representing Sherbrooke County, in the center of his company's holdings. This period in the legislature was brief, but he was reelected in 1853. As early as 1856 Galt began urging the federal union of the two Canadas rather than the legislative one.
Galt soon established himself as the leader of the English-speaking members of the Assembly from Canada East and in July 1858 was invited to enter the Macdonald-Cartier government as minister of finance. He accepted on condition that the ministry support a resolution favoring a federal union of British North America which would be pressed on the British government. The idea of federation was premature at this time, and Galt and his colleagues had no success in urging it on the Colonial Office. Galt laid the basis for a protective tariff during these years through providing additional duties on manufactured imports.
Out of office from 1862 to 1864, Galt returned to the finance portfolio in the coalition ministry that was formed to bring about a general federation of the British American colonies. In the confederation negotiations his financial skill was crucial in arranging the subsidy system intended to provide the necessary revenues for the poorer provinces of the new union.
On the formation of the first ministry of the new Dominion, in July 1867, Galt again became minister of finance. His tenure was short, however, for his independent nature brought him into disagreement with the leader of the government, John Alexander Macdonald, and he resigned in October. He retired from Parliament in 1872.
In the latter part of his life Galt made several ventures into diplomacy on behalf of Canada. In 1875 he served on the Halifax Fisheries Commission; in 1878 and 1879 Galt attempted unsuccessfully to negotiate commercial agreements with France and Spain; and he served as first high commissioner of Canada in London from 1880 to 1883. Galt's last years were spent in directing various enterprises in the western prairies in which his family was interested, notably irrigation, coal, and railroad ventures. He was knighted for public services in 1869 and died in Montreal on Sept. 19, 1893.
Further Reading
The standard biography of Galt is Oscar Douglas Skelton, The Life and Times of Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt (1920). His career is recounted in W.G. Hardy, From Sea unto Sea: Canada, 1850 to 1910 - The Road to Nationhood (1962), and W.L. Morton, The Critical Years: The Union of British North America, 1857-1873 (1964). Also useful is Donald Creighton, John A. Macdonald (2 vols., 1952-1956).
Additional Sources
Otter, A. A. den (Andy Albert den), Civilizing the West: the Galts and the development of western Canada, Edmonton, Alta., Canada: University of Alberta Press, 1982.
Timothy, Hamilton Baird, The Galts: a Canadian odyssey, Toronto: McClell and and Stewart, 1977-1984.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt |
Galt, Sir Alexander Tilloch (tĭl'ək gôlt), 1817-93, Canadian statesman, b. England; son of John Galt. In 1835 he went to Canada in the service of the British American Land Company. He directed (1844-55) the affairs of this company and was also involved in promoting the building of railroads. He was a member of the Canadian Legislative Assembly (1849-50, 1853-67) and of the Canadian House of Commons (1867-72). Although Galt had in 1849 signed the manifesto favoring the annexation of Canada by the United States, he became one of the most persistent and influential leaders of the movement for confederation of the provinces, and when he accepted (1858) the ministry of finance in the Cartier-Macdonald administration, it was on the understanding that the government would work to achieve confederation. In 1859, in answer to Great Britain's protests against the protective tariff newly adopted by Canada, Galt declared that Canada must be allowed control of its financial policies. While serving (1858-62, 1864-66) as minister of finance he was an influential member of the two conferences (1864) on confederation and of the London Conference that resulted in the British North America Act. He became (1867) minister of finance in the first dominion government, but he resigned in 1868 because of disagreement with Prime Minister John A. Macdonald and in 1872 retired from Parliament. He was the dominant member of the Halifax Fisheries Commission, which won for Canada a large award from the United States. From 1880 to 1883 he served as Canadian high commissioner in London, the first to hold that position. In the last 10 years of his life he had economic interests in W Canada, among them the development of coal deposits in Alberta; in this connection he founded Lethbridge. He was knighted in 1878.
Bibliography
See biography by O. D. Skelton (rev. ed. 1966).
| Wikipedia: Alexander Tilloch Galt |
Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, GCMG, PC (September 6, 1817–September 19, 1893) was an English-Canadian politician, and a father of Canadian Confederation.
He was born in Chelsea, England, the son of Scottish novelist and colonizer, John Galt, and Elizabeth Tilloch Galt.[1][2] He was a cousin of Sir Hugh Allan.
Alexander Galt is interred in the Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal, Quebec. In Lennoxville, Quebec, the Alexander Galt High School was named in his honour.
Contents |
Politics
He was a member of the Great Coalition government in the Province of Canada that secured Confederation between 1864 and 1867. He became a leading figure in the creation of the Coalition when he was asked to become premier of the Province of Canada by then Governor General Sir Edmund Walker Head. Doubting his own ability to demand the loyalty of the majority of members of the Legislative Assembly, he turned down the position, but recommended that George-Étienne Cartier and John A. Macdonald be asked to become co-leaders of the new government.[1]
In return, Cartier and Macdonald asked him to become Inspector-General of Canada. He accepted the post on the condition that Macdonald and Cartier made Confederation a key platform in their new government. In 1858, Alexander Tilloch Galt made a motion in the Legislature at Kingston recommending that the Province of Canada ask the British Government to create a federal union of British North America (Canada East and West, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia) and Rupert's Land (owned by the Hudson's Bay Company). The motion succeeded, and Alexander Galt, John Ross, and Sir George-Étienne Cartier went to London to begin the long process of convincing the British to make British North America into the first sovereign Dominion within the British Empire.
As Inspector General, Galt reformed the Province of Canada's banking system trade policies. He was the main architect of the Cayley-Galt Tariff, which protected colonial businesses and caused consternation in both Britain and the United States.[3]
July 1, 1867, Canada East and West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia became the first provinces in British North America to form the Dominion of Canada. Galt served as the first Minister of Finance in the new confederation. As minister of Finance, he reversed many of his earlier policies, promoting trade within the British Empire.
Galt was sent to London to be Canada's informal representative there. As this was the only important office of the Canadian government overseas at the time, he also travelled to France and Spain to negotiate trade deal with those nations. The British government knew of these trips and was not pleased that Canada had developed a foreign policy separate from the Empire. The British demanded that Galt's position be formalized, and in late 1880, he became the first Canadian High Commissioner in London.[1][3]
Family
On February 9, 1848 he married Elliott Torrance, the daughter of Montreal merchant John Torrance. She died on May 25, 1850, shortly after giving birth to their only son, Elliott. Later he married her younger sister, Amy Gordon Torrance. Galt appears to have a very non-sectarian approach to religious faith, Although the grandson of a Calvinist theologian, Alexander Galt supported both the Methodist and Anglican churches while his wife, Amy, was a lifelong Presbyterian.[3]
Business ventures
Sir Alexander Galt and his son Elliott Torrance Galt co-founded the Town of Lethbridge in 1883, when he established a mine on the banks of the Oldman River in the southwest portion of the District of Alberta, Northwest Territories. The Canadian Post Office refused to accept the name Lethbridge for the community until 1885 because there was another town with the same name in the Dominion of Canada. Sir Alexander Galt laid out the street plan of Lethbridge's present location in 1885 after his settlement was moved to the prairie level from the river valley. Canada's Governor General, the Marquis of Landsdowne, demonstrated the Dominion government's support of the Galt enterprises, by opening the Galts' railway in September 1885 in Lethbridge.[1][3]
Galt's company, the North Western Coal and Navigation Company went through a variety of name changes as it moved into railways, and irrigation enterprises. A public park and a museum (formerly a hospital) in Lethbridge are named after him. Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier dedicated the Galt Hospital addition, which houses the Galt Museum, in 1910.[1][3]
Sir Alexander was the founding President of The Guarantee Company of North America in 1872, providing fidelity bonds to guarantee the honesty of employees of railroads and government, which still exists today as the largest provider of surety bonds in all of Canada in public works and government services.
Notes
- ^ a b c d e Skelton, Oscar (1920). The Life and Times of Alexander Tilloch Galt. Oxford University Press.
- ^ Springett, Evelyn (1937). For My Children's Children. Montreal: Unity Press.
- ^ a b c d e Harris, Jane (2006). Stars Appearing: The Galts Vision of Canada. Kitchener: Volumes Publishing. ISBN 9780978098506.
References
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- Parliament of Canada biography
- Alexander Galt Research Page
| Parliament of Canada | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Newly created |
Member of Parliament from Sherbrooke (Town of) 1867 – 1872 |
Succeeded by Edward Towle Brooks |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Newly created |
Minister of Finance 1 July 1867 – 7 November 1867 |
Succeeded by Sir John Rose |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by None |
Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom 1880 – 1883 |
Succeeded by Charles Tupper |
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