Samuel Leonard Tilley
Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley, PC, KCMG ( born May 8, 1818 in Gagetown, New Brunswick, † June 25, 1896 in Saint John ) was a Canadian politician. From 1861 to 1865 he reigned as Prime Minister of New Brunswick. As one of the Fathers of Confederation, he is among the pioneers of the Canadian federal government established in 1867. From 1867 to 1873, and from 1879 to 1885 he was a member of the Canadian House of Commons and had during that time several ministerial posts INEE at the federal level. In addition, he served from 1873 to 1878 and from 1885 to 1893 as Vice- Governor of the Province of New Brunswick.
Biography
Politicians in New Brunswick
After leaving school in Saint John Tilley began an apprenticeship as a pharmacist. In 1838 he opened there along with a cousin own pharmacy, which he led from 1848 alone, and finally sold in 1860. Tilley was active and part-time working as a Sunday school teacher of the Church of England in the temperance movement. He was married twice and had ten children. A son from his second marriage, Leonard Percy de Wolfe Tilley, later became premier of New Brunswick. In 1849 he was co-founder of the liberal New Brunswick Colonial Association, urged the political reforms in the colony.
1850 Tilley ran with success in the elections to the Legislative Assembly. He campaigned for the construction of railways and the introduction of self-government of the colony. After two prominent representatives of the Colonial Association, John Hamilton Gray and Robert Duncan Wilmot, had defected to the government in 1851, he resigned his seat in parliament in protest. 1854 Tilley was re-elected and the new Prime Minister Charles Fisher appointed him as Provincial Secretary in the Government. His responsibilities included infrastructure projects and the financial budget. He brought a strict Prohibition Act, which came into force in early 1856. It proved to be unenforceable and led to violent protests, which is why Governor John Manners Sutton, the government deposed in May 1856. The newly elected Parliament raised the controversial law on then.
Already in 1857 it came to elections and Prime Minister Fisher took Tilley again as provincial secretary in the government. The most important task in the following years was the completion of the European and North American Railway. After Fisher's resignation because of his involvement in a corruption scandal smaller Tilley took over on 19 March 1861, the Office of the Prime Minister. During his reign, he led negotiations on the construction of the Intercolonial Railway. Tilley was a proponent of a confederation of the colonies in British North America. For this reason, he took part in the Charlottetown Conference and at the Quebec Conference in September and October 1864.
The proposed Canadian Confederation met in New Brunswick but fierce resistance. The new Anti- Confederation Party won the elections in March 1865, while the proponents of the Confederacy had suffered a crushing defeat; Tilley also lost his seat, but a year later, the political situation changed again radically since the Anti- Confederation Party was falling apart. In May, 1866 elections, which ended with an overwhelming victory for the Konföderationsbefürworter. Tilley was one of the delegates at the London Conference, where the British North America Act was negotiated in December 1866. The term Dominion for the new state is attributed to Tilley, said to have been inspired by Psalm 72:8 the King James Bible.
Federal policy
On 1 July 1867 the founding of Canada, appointed Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald Tilley as Minister of Customs in his cabinet. In the first Canadian general election, he ran as a Liberal -Conservative and won the electoral district of Saint John. In the same year he married a second time (his first wife had died ten years earlier ). Tilley had the task to transfer the customs and administrative system of the former Province of Canada to the Maritime Provinces, otherwise he had little influence in the Cabinet. Disillusioned, he wanted to leave the Cabinet in 1871, but Macdonald persuaded him to stay. In February 1873 he appointed him as Minister of Finance.
As the Pacific scandal, the federal government brought down, Tilley gave up his House seat. Governor General Lord Dufferin sworn him on 15 November 1873 as Vice- Governor of New Brunswick. Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie tried in vain to make the proposed appointment of his predecessor Macdonald reversed. Tilley exercised the repräsantative office until 11 July 1878. Two months later he was a candidate in the general election in 1878 and won in his ancestral constituency Saint John.
John Macdonald was after five -year hiatus again become Canadian prime minister and appointed Tilley back in his cabinet. He was appointed Minister of Finance and took over in May 1879, in addition, the Office of the Treasurer. His main task was to implement the National Policy: With high import duties on consumer goods, the Canadian industrial production should be strengthened. For health reasons, he retired permanently on November 10, 1885 the Federal Policy. The following day, he was appointed a second time as Vice- Governor of New Brunswick. His second term lasted until 21 September 1893.