Alexander Tilloch Galt

Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, GCMG, PC (September 6, 1817–September 19, 1893) was an English-Canadian politician, and a father of Canadian Confederation.

He was born in Chelsea, London, the son of Scottish novelist and colonizer, John Galt, and Elizabeth Tilloch Galt.cite book | last = Skelton | first = Oscar | title =The Life and Times of Alexander Tilloch Galt | publisher = Oxford University Press | date = 1920] cite book | last = Springett | first = Evelyn | title = For My Children's Children | publisher = Unity Press | date = 1937 | location = Montreal]

Alexander Galt is interred in the Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal, Quebec. In Lennoxville, Quebec, the Alexander Galt High School was named in his honour.

Politics

He was a member of the Great Coalition government in the Province of Canada that secured Confederation between 1864 and 1867. He became a leading figure in the creation of the Coalition when he was asked to become premier of the Province of Canada by then Governor General Sir Edmund Walker Head. Doubting his own ability to demand the loyalty of the majority of members of the Legislative Assembly, he turned down the position, but recommended that George-Étienne Cartier and John A. Macdonald be asked to become co-leaders of the new government.

In return, Cartier and Macdonald asked him to become Inspector-General of Canada. He accepted the post on the condition that Macdonald and Cartier made Confederation a key platform in their new government. In 1858, Alexander Tilloch Galt made a motion in the Legislature at Kingston recommending that the Province of Canada ask the British Government to create a federal union of British North America (Canada East and West, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia) and Rupert's Land (owned by the Hudson's Bay Company). The motion succeeded, and Alexander Galt, John Ross, and Sir George-Étienne Cartier went to London to begin the long process of convincing the British to make British North America into the first sovereign Dominion within the British Empire.

As Inspector General, Galt reformed the Province of Canada's banking system trade policies. He was the main architect of the Cayley-Galt Tariff, which protected colonial businesses and caused consternation in both Britain and the United States.cite book | last = Harris | first = Jane | title = Stars Appearing: The Galts Vision of Canada | publisher = Volumes Publishing | date = 2006 | location = Kitchener | isbn = 9780978098506]

July 1, 1867, Canada East and West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia became the first provinces in British North America to form the Dominion of Canada. Galt served as the first Minister of Finance in the new confederation. As minister of Finance, he reversed many of the his earlier policies, promoting trade within the British Empire.

Galt was sent to London to be Canada's informal representative there. As this was the only important office of the Canadian government overseas at the time, he also travelled to France and Spain to negotiate trade deal with those nations. The British government knew of these trips and was not pleased that Canada had de facto developed a foreign policy separate from the Empire. The British demanded that Galt's position be formalized, and in late 1880, he became the first Canadian High Commissioner in London.

Family

In 1848, he married Elliott, the daughter of Montreal merchant John Torrance. After her death in 1850, he married her younger sister Amy Gordon. Galt appears to have a very non-sectarian approach to religious faith, Although the grandson of a Calvinist theologian, Alexander Galt supported both the Methodist and Anglican churches while his wife, Amy, was a lifelong Presbyterian.

Business ventures

Sir Alexander Galt and his son Elliott Torrance Galt co-founded the Town of Lethbridge in 1883, when he established a mine on the banks of the Oldman River in the southwest portion of the District of Alberta, Northwest Territories. The Canadian Post Office refused to accept the name Lethbridge for the community until 1885 because there was another town with the same name in the Dominion of Canada. Sir Alexander Galt laid out the street plan of Lethbridge's present location in 1885 after his settlement was moved to the prairie level from the river valley. Canada's Governor General, the Marquis of Landsdowne, demonstrated the Dominion government's support of the Galt enterprises, by opening the Galts' railway in September 1885 in Lethbridge.

Galt's company, the North Western Coal and Navigation Company went through a variety of name changes as it moved into railways, and irrigation enterprises. A public park and a museum (formerly a hospital) in Lethbridge are named after him. Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier dedicated the Galt Hospital addition, which houses the Galt Museum, in 1910.

Sir Alexander was the founding President of The Guarantee Company of North America in 1872, providing fidelity bonds to guarantee the honesty of employees of railroads and government, which still exists today as the largest provider of surety bonds in all of Canada in public works and government services.

Notes

References

*DictCanbio|ID=6112
*Parlbio|ID=2890
* [http://www.northpine.ca/galt/ Alexander Galt Research Page]