Robert Borden

Sir Robert Laird Borden (June 26, 1854 – June 10, 1937) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Canada, serving from 1911 to 1920. He is best known for his leadership of Canada during World War I.

Borden was born in Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia. He worked as a schoolteacher for a period and then served his articles of clerkship at a Halifax law firm. He was called to the bar in 1878 and soon became one of Nova Scotia's most prominent barristers. Borden was elected to the House of Commons in the 1896 federal election, representing the Conservative Party. He replaced Charles Tupper as party leader in 1901, but was defeated in two federal elections by Liberal Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier in 1904 and 1908. However, in the 1911 federal election, Borden led the Conservatives to victory, on the basis that that the Liberals' proposed trade reciprocity treaty with the United States would lead to the U.S. influencing Canadian identity and weaken ties with Great Britain.

Borden's early years as prime minister focused on strengthening relations with Britain. Within three years of taking office, World War I broke out. To support the war effort, he established the Canadian Expeditionary Force and enacted the War Measures Act, which granted the government sweeping powers. To finance the conflict, his government issued victory bonds, raised tariffs, and introduced new taxes, including the federal income tax. In 1917, facing what he believed to be a shortage in Canadian soldiers, Borden introduced conscription, which caused significant controversy in French Canada and ignited the Conscription Crisis. Despite this, his Unionist Party, a coalition of Conservatives and pro-conscription Liberals, was elected with an overwhelming majority in the 1917 federal election. After the war, Borden sought to expand the autonomy of Canada and other Dominions at the Paris Peace Conference, including by signing the Treaty of Versailles as independent parties. In doing so, Canada established itself as a founding member of the League of Nations. Domestically, Borden's government dealt with the aftermath of the Halifax Explosion, introduced women's suffrage in federal elections, nationalized railways by establishing the Canadian National Railway, and deployed the North-West Mounted Police to suppress the 1919 Winnipeg general strike.

Borden retired from politics in 1920. In his retirement, he was Chancellor of Queen's University from 1924 to 1930 and was president of two financial institutions, the Barclays Bank of Canada and the Crown Life Insurance Company, from 1928 until his death in 1937. Borden places above-average among historians and the public in rankings of prime ministers of Canada. He was the last prime minister born before Confederation and the last prime minister to be knighted, having accepted a knighthood in 1914.