CANADA’S NEW PREMIER.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 143646, 14 November 1911, Page 7

CANADA’S NEW PREMIER.

PERSONAL SKETCH OF MR, .BOR.OEN. After ten years in the wilderness, alccu tun years' tensorne, thankless, but unswerving leadership in opposujjn, iteourc haiid Borden nas come into ins own. Canada's new Premier has served a hard apprenticeship; lie will know how to govern. He lias crowned ail the patient work of a decade by a triumpn, sweeping, unquestionable, unassailaule. Canaau, Uau-pieugcd to reciprocity, has been roused irom her dalliance uy his clarion call to the higher imperial ideal —a clarion call that lie has sounded in tho East, in the Maritime Provinces, and m mo v\ esi, m the larmurs’ strongholds, where tho ‘•panacea” was most luvourabiy rcgardcu. Ino immense fatigue of long ana difficult railway journeys, continual speech-making to hostile, or, at be*t, unsympathetic audiences, the enormous pnysicul nave an oven borne uulhncliiugiy iu. the cause of duty. And the reward is to-day, with tho Knowledge that Canada ha* neard his message, lias realised its truth, and has declared in no uncertain voice that he shall bo her leader—no more in opposition, but iu power. DIFFICULTIES OF LEADERSHIP. When Mr. Borden became leader of the Canadian Conservative Party in JLyol he had personal as well as political difficulties to face. Ho followed Sir Charles Tupper in the leadership, and Sir Charles nad been lor live and twenty years the right-hand man of Macdonald, that is to say, he had been a link with the greatest personality m the party. Mr. Borden, moreover, was comparatively unknown to the* rank ana file, lie was a lawyer, a member of the Nova Scotian Bar, who had taken silk. He had been in Parliament five years, and had spoken seldom, mainly upon questions of legal importance or interest. Nor was his nomination lor tho leaderdiip unanimous when Sir Charles Tuxiper retired, defeated in his last election and stricken in years. Yet, iu spite of his disadvantages, Mr. Borden look the leadership, kept it, and has at last, upon a question of the widest possible imperial importance, routed tho weil-rooted Laurier Government.

Mr. Borden is essentially a cool leader. Ho has never put oil that calm, law courts atmosphere which has led so many to say of him that he would bo an ideal Minister of Justice. It is by force of argument and logic, by incisive criticism and plain phraseology, that Mr. Borden makes his points in debate or in public speaking. SCHOOL TEACHER TO PREMIER. By a strange inappositeucas this practical man was born in Acadia, the scene of Longfellow’s great poem, ‘“Evangeline.” His parents were English Canadians settled in Nova Scotia, and ho was born at Grand Pro in 185-1. After his years of schooling at the Acadia Villa Academy, ho became a school teacher at tho Glen wood Institute. Subsequently he studied law, like so many other prominent Canadian public men. and was called to the Bar in 1878. By sheer hard work and enthusiastic interest in his profession, he rose to be leader of tho iSova Scotain Bar, and appeared often before the Supremo Court at Ottawa, where his ability marked him out as one of tho foremost lawyers of tiie Dominion.

In time there came an invitation to stand lor Parliament —an invitation that was only accepted with great reluctance, and after much pressure had been brought to bear on him by the party. He was head of the firm of .Borden, Ritchie, and Chisholm, of Halifax, and had been for ton years president of the Nova Scotian Barristers’ Society, His entry into public lilo meant severance in great measure not only from his professional associations, but also from his native province of Nova Scotia- How truly his feelings were prophetic was seen in 1904, when not only did he lose his own seat at Halifax, but every constituency in his native province declared against his candidates. Ho made the sacrifice, however, and at the age of 42 entered Parliament. At first there was little in his political career to mark him out as a first-rate politician. Yot five years later he was proposed as the leader of the party, and accepted the position. POLITICAL CRISES.

H© has had man 3;' heavy moments in the years that havo'passcd ? and ho has faced more than one crisis in the party. His position in the religious quarrel over the schools in 1905 was one cause of dissatisfaction to his followers. Again, when the Government voted a salary of £ISOO o year to the loader of the Opposition, and Mr. Borden accepted it’.as an alternative to the existing custom of subsidy by the wealthier members of the Conservative Party, disaffection was rife, and charges of possible servility to his political opponents were not lucking. His greatest trial, however, was the defeat in Nova Scotia already referred to, for it has become almost a tradition in Canadian politics that the leader of a party shall have his own province at the back of him. This tradition will bo strengthened by the present election, with its gain of three seats in Nova Scotia by Mr. Borden’s anti-reciprocity candidates.

lii spito of all his struggles, Mr. Borden has retained the calm, collected characteristics that marked him as an advocate. It is told of him that in an election campaign in Montreal he was once mobbed by a body of railway strikers, who were determined to air their grievances at one of his meetings. He could not get a hearing. Thou in a momentary lull ho remarked: “If you do not want to listen to me you are not compelled to do so. I will dictate what I have to say to the press representatives.” With that ho walked over to the assembled newspaper men and continued ids remarks in an undertone.

His quiet nonchalance had its effect. The speech was delivered to a silent and attentive audience.

It is, 'perhaps, tho most dramatic thing that Mr. Borden has ever done, for he lacks all spectacular demonstrativeness, He has no mannerisms, and is entirely free from vanity. Yet in the last few years the dominance of his personality, his fine persona! dignity and transparent honesty, have won him a steadily growing popularity that has swelled into an intense enthusiastic following during tho long and trying antireciprocity campaign which he has waged so fearlessly, so whole-heartedly, and with such magnificent success.