page_title: Charles Tupper
section_title: Later years as High Commissioner, 1888–1895
hierarchical_section_title: Charles Tupper / Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, 1883–1895 / Later years as High Commissioner, 1888–1895
caption_attribution_description: English: "The Old Flag! The Old Guard and the Old Principle!" Conservative Party election poster, with Charles Tupper and Hugh John Macdonald. (Canada) Français&#160;: "Le vieux drapeau! La vieille garde et le vieux principe!" Affiche electorale du parti conservateur, avec Charles Tupper et Hugh John Macdonald. (Canada)
context_page_description: Sir Charles Tupper, 1st Baronet, GCMG, CB, PC was a Canadian father of Confederation: as the premier of Nova Scotia from 1864 to 1867, he led Nova Scotia into Confederation. He went on to serve as the sixth prime minister of Canada, sworn into office on May 1, 1896, seven days after parliament had been dissolved. He lost the June 23 election and resigned on July 8, 1896. His 69-day term as prime minister is currently 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. By the age of 22 he had handled 116 obstetric cases. He practiced medicine periodically throughout his political career. He entered Nova Scotian politics in 1855 as a protégé of James William Johnston. During Johnston's tenure as premier of Nova Scotia in 1857–59 and 1863–64, 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.
context_section_description: For Tupper's work on the Joint Commission, Joseph Chamberlain arranged for Tupper to become a baronet of the United Kingdom, and the Tupper Baronetcy was created on September 13, 1888.
  In 1889, tensions were high between the U.S. and Canada when the U.S. banned Canadians from engaging in the seal hunt in the Bering Sea as part of the ongoing Bering Sea Dispute between the U.S. and Britain. Tupper traveled to Washington, D.C. to represent Canadian interests during the negotiations and was something of an embarrassment to the British diplomats.
  When, in 1890, the provincial secretary of Newfoundland, Robert Bond, negotiated a fisheries treaty with the U.S. that Tupper felt was not in Canada's interest, Tupper successfully persuaded the British government (then under Lord Salisbury's second term) to reject the treaty.
  Tupper remained an active politician during his time as High Commissioner, which was controversial because diplomats are traditionally expected to be nonpartisan. (Tupper's successor as High Commissioner, Donald Smith would succeed in turning the High Commissioner's office into a nonpartisan office.) As such, Tupper returned to Canada to campaign on behalf of the Conservatives' National Policy during the 1891 election.
  Tupper continued to be active in the Imperial Federation League, though after 1887, the League was split over the issue of regular colonial contribution to imperial defense. As a result, the League was dissolved in 1893, for which some people blamed Tupper.
  With respect to the British Empire, Tupper advocated a system of mutual preferential trading. In a series of articles in Nineteenth Century in 1891 and 1892, Tupper denounced the position that Canada should unilaterally reduce its tariff on British goods. Rather, he argued that any such tariff reduction should only come as part of a wider trade agreement in which tariffs on Canadian goods would also be reduced at the same time.
  Sir John A. Macdonald's death in 1891 opened the possibility of Tupper's replacing him as Prime Minister of Canada, but Tupper enjoyed life in London and decided against returning to Canada. He recommended that his son support Sir John Thompson's prime ministerial bid.
caption: "The Old Flag! The Old Guard and the Old Principle!" Conservative Party election poster, with Charles Tupper and Hugh John Macdonald, during the 1891 election
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