Alexander Tilloch Galt
Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, GCMG, PC ( born September 6, 1817 in Chelsea, UK, † September 19, 1893 in Montreal ) was a Canadian politician and businessman. In the 1850s he was the leading sponsor the construction of railways in eastern Canada. As one of the Fathers of Confederation Galt is among the pioneers of the Canadian federal government established in 1867. From 1853 to 1872 he was a liberal - conservative MP in the House of the Province of Canada and the Canadian House of Commons. For twelve years he was Finance Minister, and thus one of the most influential politicians in general. From 1880 to 1883 he officiated Canadian High Commissioner in the UK.
Biography
Entrepreneurs and railway pioneer
The son of novelist John Galt spent his childhood in London and Scotland. In 1828 he moved to Upper Canada, where his father had founded the Canada Company. This company prepared the colonization of the area around Guelph. After the founding of the British American Land Company, the family moved to Sherbrooke. Galt began his professional career in this Colonization, 1842 worked for a year at the London headquarters, and in 1843 was determined daily manager in Canada. The profits earned, he used to get from a small village to develop Sherbrooke to an industrial center.
1845 Galt founded the Sherbrooke Cotton Factory, the first cotton mill and also the first joint stock company in the province of Canada. Through its extensive network of contacts he could find the capital needed for the construction of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad, a railroad line between Portland and Montreal, which was completed in 1853. Galt also planned a railway between Montreal and Kingston, which, however, the plans of Francis Hincks was contrary. To avoid unnecessary competition, they combined their businesses in 1852 of the Grand Trunk Railway. Together with Casimir Gzowski Galt founded the company also CS Gzowski & Co., which carried out the construction of the route Toronto - Sarnia. Further investment in it -actuated lead mines and banks.
Colonial and Federal policy
Galt's political career began in April 1849, when he was elected, by acclamation, Member of Parliament for Sherbrooke in the House of the Province of Canada. He was one of the signatories of the published in October and December 1849 the Montreal Annexation Manifesto. In January 1850 he resigned as an MP, as the rapidly growing rail business took too much time. In May 1853 he had himself elected again to the House. At the beginning he was on the side of the reformers, but identified with the time ever more with the Conservatives. Governor General Edmund Walker Head wanted to instruct him in August 1858 with the formation of a new government. However, Galt was convinced he could bring no stable majority on his side. Instead, he suggested George-Étienne Cartier and John Macdonald ago as co- prime minister. They got their revenge by the Inspector General (equivalent to Minister of Finance) appointed him.
He assumed the ministerial posts, put a condition Galt: The government should aim the union of the colonies in British North America into a federal state. The Parliament gave its assent and Galt traveled in October 1858 to London to present the idea to the Colonial Office. However, this showed little interest, so he turned back the project for the time being. From May 1862 Galt was in opposition, until he took his usual ministerial post in March 1864. Liberals and Conservatives formed a large coalition to bring the federal government project back on track. In September or October 1864 Galt was a delegate attended the Charlottetown Conference and at the Quebec Conference, where such negotiations took place. He successfully lobbied to ensure that the rights of religious minorities would be respected in education.
In December 1866 Galt took part in the London Conference to participate in the drafting of the constitution of the new state. On 1 July 1867 he was appointed by Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald as Minister of Finance was founded on this day State Canada. In the first Canadian general election he won as liberal- conservative candidate in the electoral district of Sherbrooke. In November 1867 he resigned from the Cabinet because he had received no support in the attempted rescue of an insolvent bank by the Prime Minister. In 1872, he no longer went to the Lower House elections. In May 1880 Galt was appointed the first Canadian High Commissioner in the UK. This diplomatic function in the British capital London he held until June 1883.
Other business activities
In the 1880s, Galt again became an entrepreneur. In 1881 he learned of his son Elliott, who worked as an Indian Agent in Regina, of extensive coal deposits in the south of the later province of Alberta. In 1882 he founded the North Western Coal and Navigation Company, whose aim was to deliver coal to the still under construction, the Canadian Pacific Railway. The opening of several mines and the construction of a mine train led to the flourishing of Lethbridge settlement that developed in a short time to a city. Due to a chronic illness Galt moved in 1890 from the public gaze. Galt died in 1893 and is located in the cemetery buried in Mont-Royal Montreal.