Sir Clifford Sifton
Sir Clifford Sifton, PC, KCMG, KC, lawyer, politician, businessman (born 10 March 1861 near Arva, Canada West; died 17 April 1929 in New York City, New York). One of the ablest politicians of his time, Sifton is best known for his aggressive promotion of immigration to settle the Prairie West.
Under his leadership, immigration to Canada increased significantly — from 16,835 per year in 1896 to 141,465 in 1905. A Liberal politician of considerable influence and vision, he was also a controversial figure. Sifton promoted a single education system and opposed the public funding of denominational schools, largely disregarding the concerns of French Catholics. His brother, Arthur Lewis Sifton, was premier of Alberta from 1910 to 1917.
Sifton’s family was active in national and local politics. His father had supported Alexander Mackenzie’s campaigns and twice won election to the Manitoba legislature (1878 and 1881). Clifford Sifton supported his father’s re-election campaigns in 1882 and 1886 (both of which were unsuccessful). In 1888, Sifton himself stood for election to the Manitoba Legislature as a Liberal candidate. He was elected as an MLA for Brandon North, becoming part of the new government under Thomas Greenway.<p?
With the election of the Manitoba Liberals in 1888, the monopoly of the Canadian Pacific Railway came to an end. Although this allowed completion of the Red River Valley Railway and a reduction in freight rates, railway expansion stalled in Manitoba, owing largely to the problems of financing construction. In 1895, Sifton created a new system of financing railway construction in which the provincial government guaranteed the principal and interest on railway bonds. He also worked with railway contractors Donald Mann and William Mackenzie to complete the Lake Manitoba Railway, which would become part of the Canadian Northern Railway system in 1899.
On 17 November 1896, after negotiating the Laurier-Greenway compromise on the Manitoba Schools Question, Sifton joined Wilfrid Laurier’s government, becoming federal minister of the interior and superintendent general of Indian Affairs, which included responsibility for immigration and settlement of the prairies.
Sifton resigned from Cabinet on 27 February 1905, following a dispute with Prime Minister Laurier over school policy for Alberta and Saskatchewan. Sifton believed that the new provinces should ideally have a single school system, and was concerned by education clauses that seemed to grant privileges to the Catholic minority. He remained a private member of Parliament until 1911, when he broke with the Liberal Party on reciprocity with the United States. He didn’t run for Parliament again, but did support the anti-reciprocity Conservatives, contributing to their victory in the general election of September 1911.
Read Sifton's complete biography at the Canadian Encyclopaedia