Sir Robert Laird Borden was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Canada from 1911 to 1920.
59 Facts About Robert Borden
2.
Robert Borden worked as a schoolteacher for a period and then served his articles of clerkship at a Halifax law firm.
3.
Robert Borden was called to the bar in 1878, and soon became one of Nova Scotia's most prominent barristers.
4.
Robert Borden replaced Charles Tupper as party leader in 1901, but was defeated in two federal elections by Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier in 1904 and 1908.
5.
However, in the 1911 federal election, Robert Borden led the Conservatives to victory after he claimed that the Liberals' proposed trade reciprocity treaty with the United States would lead to the US influencing Canadian identity and weaken ties with Great Britain.
6.
Robert Borden became significantly interventionist by passing the War Measures Act which gave the government extraordinary powers.
7.
In 1917, facing what he believed to be a shortage in Canadian soldiers, Robert Borden introduced conscription, angering French Canada and sparking a national divide known as the Conscription Crisis.
8.
At the Paris Peace Conference, Robert Borden sought to expand the autonomy of Canada and other Dominions.
9.
Robert Borden was the last prime minister born before Confederation and the last prime minister to be knighted, having accepted a knighthood in 1914.
10.
The last Canadian prime minister born before Confederation, Robert Borden was born and educated in Grand-Pre, Nova Scotia, a farming community at the eastern end of the Annapolis Valley.
11.
The Robert Borden family had immigrated from Headcorn, Kent, England, to New England in the 17th century.
12.
Robert Borden's ambition was transmitted to her first-born child, who applied himself to his studies while assisting his parents with the farm work he found so disagreeable.
13.
At age nine, Robert Borden became a day student for the local private academy, Acacia Villa School.
14.
At age 14, Robert Borden became the assistant master for classical studies.
15.
In late 1873, Robert Borden began working as a professor for classics and mathematics at the Glenwood Institute in Matawan, New Jersey.
16.
Robert Borden attended the School of Military Instruction in the city during the winter of 1878.
17.
Robert Borden went to Kentville, Nova Scotia, as the junior partner of the Conservative lawyer John P Chipman.
18.
In 1882, Robert Borden, despite being a Liberal, accepted Wallace Graham's request to move to Halifax and join the Conservative law firm headed by Graham and Charles Hibbert Tupper.
19.
In 1886, Robert Borden broke with the Liberal Party after he disagreed with Premier William Stevens Fielding's campaign to withdraw Nova Scotia from Confederation.
20.
Robert Borden later became president of the Aberdeen Association, vice-president of the Women's Work Exchange in Halifax, and corresponding secretary of the Associated Charities of the United States.
21.
In 1894, Robert Borden bought a large property and home on the south side of Quinpool Road, which the couple called Pinehurst.
22.
In 1893, Robert Borden successfully argued the first of two cases which he took to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
23.
Robert Borden represented many of the important Halifax businesses and sat on the boards of Nova Scotian companies, including the Bank of Nova Scotia and the Crown Life Insurance Company.
24.
Robert Borden had several court cases in Ottawa, and while in that city he frequently met with Prime Minister John Sparrow David Thompson, a fellow Nova Scotian.
25.
In 1896, Robert Borden became president of the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society and took the initiative in organizing the founding meetings of the Canadian Bar Association in Montreal.
26.
Tupper, who was about to succeed Mackenzie Bowell as prime minister, asked Robert Borden to run for the federal electoral district of Halifax for the upcoming election.
27.
Robert Borden participated in many House committees and over time emerged as a key figure in the party.
28.
Tupper, and his son Charles Hibbert Tupper asked Robert Borden to become leader, citing his work in Parliament and lack of enemies within the Conservative caucus.
29.
Robert Borden himself was defeated in his Halifax seat but re-entered the House of Commons the next year via a by-election in Carleton.
30.
Robert Borden opposed the treaty, stating that it would weaken ties with Britain, lead to Canadian identity being influenced by the US, and lead to American annexation of Canada.
31.
In 1912 and 1913, Robert Borden's government sought to pass a naval bill that would have sent $35 million for the construction of three dreadnoughts for the British Navy.
32.
On June 22,1914, Robert Borden was knighted; King George V awarded him the Order of St Michael and St George.
33.
The act allowed Robert Borden to govern by Order in Council, meaning that Cabinet was allowed to implement pieces of legislation without the need for a vote in the House of Commons and Senate.
34.
Robert Borden's government created the Canadian Patriotic Fund to give financial and social assistance to the families of soldiers.
35.
In 1916, Robert Borden's government established the National Research Council Canada for scientific and industrial research.
36.
In 1915,1916, and 1917, Robert Borden's government began to reverse their anti-taxation position, not least because of the need for more government revenue.
37.
In 1917, Robert Borden's government introduced the income tax which came into effect on September 20,1917.
38.
In 1917, facing skyrocketing prices, Robert Borden's government established the Board of Grain Supervisors of Canada to distance the marketing of crops grown in 1917 and 1918 away from the private grain companies.
39.
In Spring 1917, Robert Borden visited Europe and attended the Imperial Conference.
40.
Also during his trip, Robert Borden made visits to the hospital to meet wounded and shell shocked soldiers and became deterimined that the soldiers' sacrifices should not be in vain, and that therefore, the war must end.
41.
On October 27,1918, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George requested Robert Borden to visit Britain for possible peace talks.
42.
Robert Borden attended the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, though boycotted the opening ceremony, protesting at the precedence given to William Lloyd, the prime minister of the much smaller Newfoundland, over Robert Borden.
43.
Robert Borden responded by pointing out that since Canada had lost a far larger proportion of its men compared to the US in the war, Canada at least had the right to the representation of a "minor" power.
44.
Not only did Robert Borden's persistence allow him to represent Canada in Paris as a nation, it ensured that each of the dominions could sign the Treaty of Versailles in its own right and receive a separate membership in the League of Nations.
45.
Also during the conference, Robert Borden tried to act as an intermediary between the United States and other members of the British Empire delegation, particularly Australia and New Zealand over the issue of the League of Nations Mandate.
46.
Robert Borden discussed with Lloyd George the possibility of Canada taking over the West Indies but no agreement was reached.
47.
On May 6,1919, Robert Borden issued a memorandum calling for Canada, as a member, to have the right to be elected to the League's council.
48.
The tragedy occurring in his own hometown, Robert Borden pledged that the government would be "co-operating in every way to reconstruct the Port of Halifax: this was of utmost importance to the Empire".
49.
Robert Borden helped set up the Halifax Relief Commission that spent $30 million on medical care, repairing infrastructure, and establishing pensions for injured survivors.
50.
In 1920, Robert Borden's government passed the Dominion Elections Act to allow women to run for the Parliament of Canada.
51.
In mid-1917, Robert Borden agreed with MP William Folger Nickle's proposal to abolish Hereditary titles in Canada.
52.
On June 6,1919, through an Order in Council, Robert Borden's government established the Canadian National Railways as a Crown Corporation.
53.
Robert Borden took a vacation for an unspecified amount of time and returned to Ottawa in May 1920.
54.
Robert Borden announced his retirement to his Unionist caucus on Dominion Day, July 1,1920.
55.
Robert Borden was the Chancellor of Queen's University from 1924 to 1930.
56.
Robert Borden served as Vice-President of The Champlain Society between 1923 and 1925 and was the Society's first Honorary President between 1925 and 1937.
57.
In 1928 Robert Borden became president of two financial institutions: Barclays Bank of Canada and the Crown Life Insurance Company.
58.
Robert Borden died on June 10,1937, in Ottawa and is buried in the Beechwood Cemetery marked by a simple stone cross.
59.
Robert Borden chose the following jurists to sit as justices of the Supreme Court of Canada:.