Charles Tupper

The Right Honourable Sir Charles Tupper Bt GCMG CB PC M.D.
Tupper in 1896
6th Prime Minister of Canada
In office May 1, 1896 – July 8, 1896
Monarch	Victoria
Governor General	The Earl of Aberdeen
Preceded by	Mackenzie Bowell
Succeeded by	Wilfrid Laurier
Leader of the Official Opposition
In office July 11, 1896 – February 5, 1901
Preceded by	Wilfrid Laurier
Succeeded by	Robert Borden
Secretary of State for Canada
In office January 15, 1896 – July 8, 1896
Prime Minister	Mackenzie Bowell Himself (after May 1)
Preceded by	Walter Humphries Montague
Succeeded by	Richard William Scott
Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
In office May 30, 1883 – January 15, 1896
Prime Minister	John A. Macdonald John Abbott John Sparrow David Thompson Mackenzie Bowell
Preceded by	Alexander Tilloch Galt
Succeeded by	Donald Smith
Minister of Finance and Receiver General
In office January 27, 1887 – May 22, 1888
Prime Minister	John A. Macdonald
Preceded by	Archibald McLelan
Succeeded by	George Eulas Foster
Member of Parliament for Cape Breton
In office 1896–1900
Preceded by	David MacKeen
Succeeded by	Alexander Johnston
Member of Parliament for Cumberland
In office 1887–1888
Preceded by	Charles James Townshend
Succeeded by	Arthur Rupert Dickey
In office September 20, 1867 – May 1884
Preceded by	New Constituency
Succeeded by	Charles James Townshend
Premier of Nova Scotia
In office May 11, 1864 – July 3, 1867
Lieutenant Governor	Charles Hastings Doyle Richard Graves MacDonnell William Williams
Preceded by	James William Johnston
Succeeded by	Hiram Blanchard
Personal details
Born	Charles Tupper, Jr. (1821-07-02)July 2, 1821 Amherst, Nova Scotia
Died	October 30, 1915(1915-10-30) (aged 94) Bexleyheath, England
Resting place	St. John's Cemetery, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Citizenship	British subject
Nationality	Canadian
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Frances Morse ​ ​ (m. 1846; died 1912)​
Children	6, including: Charles Hibbert Tupper William Johnston Tupper
Alma mater	University of Edinburgh Medical School (1843)
Profession	Physician
Awards	Order of St Michael and St George
Signature

Sir Charles Tupper, 1st Baronet GCMG, CB, PC, M.D.^[1] (July 2, 1821 – October 30, 1915) was a Canadian Father of Confederation who served as the sixth prime minister of Canada from May 1 to July 8, 1896. As the premier of Nova Scotia from 1864 to 1867, he led Nova Scotia into Confederation. He briefly served as the Canadian prime minister, from seven days after parliament had been dissolved, until he resigned on July 8, 1896, following his party's loss in the 1896 Canadian federal election. He is the only medical doctor to have ever held the office of prime minister of Canada^[1] and his 68-day tenure as prime minister is the shortest in Canadian history.

Tupper was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia, to the Rev. Charles Tupper and Miriam Lockhart. He was educated at Horton Academy, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, graduating MD in 1843.^[2] By the age of 22 he had handled 116 obstetric cases.^[3] He practiced medicine periodically throughout his political career (and served as the first president of the Canadian Medical Association). He entered Nova Scotian politics in 1855 as a protégé of James William Johnston. During Johnston's tenure as premier of Nova Scotia in 1857–1859 and 1863–1864, Tupper served as provincial secretary. Tupper replaced Johnston as premier in 1864. As premier, he established public education in Nova Scotia and expanded Nova Scotia's railway network in order to promote industry.

By 1860, Tupper supported a union of all the colonies of British North America. Believing that immediate union of all the colonies was impossible, in 1864, he proposed a Maritime Union. However, representatives of the Province of Canada asked to be allowed to attend the meeting in Charlottetown scheduled to discuss Maritime Union in order to present a proposal for a wider union, and the Charlottetown Conference thus became the first of the three conferences that secured Canadian Confederation. Tupper also represented Nova Scotia at the other two conferences, the Quebec Conference (1864) and the London Conference of 1866. In Nova Scotia, Tupper organized a Confederation Party to combat the activities of the Anti-Confederation Party organized by Joseph Howe and successfully led Nova Scotia into Confederation.

Following the passage of the British North America Act in 1867, Tupper resigned as premier of Nova Scotia and began a career in federal politics. He held multiple cabinet positions under Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, including President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada (1870–1872), Minister of Inland Revenue (1872–1873), Minister of Customs (1873–1874), Minister of Public Works (1878–1879), and Minister of Railways and Canals (1879–1884). Initially groomed as Macdonald's successor, Tupper had a falling-out with Macdonald, and by the early 1880s, he asked Macdonald to appoint him as Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. Tupper took up his post in London in 1883, and would remain High Commissioner until 1895, although in 1887–1888, he served as Minister of Finance without relinquishing the High Commissionership.

In 1895, the government of Mackenzie Bowell floundered over the Manitoba Schools Question; as a result, several leading members of the Conservative Party of Canada demanded the return of Tupper to serve as prime minister. Tupper accepted this invitation and returned to Canada, becoming prime minister in May 1896. Just before he was sworn in as prime minister, the 1896 federal election was called, in which his party lost to Wilfrid Laurier and the Liberals. Tupper served as leader of the Opposition from July 1896 until he resigned in February 1901, just months after his second defeat at the polls in 1900. He returned to London, England, where he lived until his death in 1915 and was buried back in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was the last surviving Canadian father of Confederation. In 2016, he was posthumously inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.^[4]