Sir Robert Laird Borden
BORDEN, Sir ROBERT LAIRD, lawyer and politician; b. 26 June 1854 in Grand Pré, N.S., first child of Andrew Borden and Eunice Jane Laird; m. 25 Sept. 1889 Laura Bond (d. 8 Sept. 1940) in Halifax; they had no children; d. 10 June 1937 in Ottawa.
[In 1874] He applied to and was accepted by the prominent Halifax firm of Robert Linton Weatherbe and Wallace Nesbit Graham. As the fall of 1874 began, Borden, always punctilious, recorded: "Commenced the study of the law by reading a small portion of [Robert Malcolm Napier] Kerr's 1873 edition of the Student's Blackstone on Saturday evening, Sept. 19 at 8.45 o'clock."
He was apprenticed to Weatherbe and Graham as an articled clerk for four years, "entitled to be instructed in the knowledge and practice of the Law." In truth, he learned by doing... In September 1877 he joined Charles Hibbert Tupper, who had a law degree from Harvard, and 23 others to sit the provincial bar examinations. Borden topped the class. He still had a year of apprenticeship before admittance to the bar and during the winter of 1877-78 also attended the School of Military Instruction in Halifax.
By the mid 1890s the Borden firm, now including William Bruce Almon Ritchie and others, was among the largest in the province. The Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada Atlantic Steamship, Nova Scotia Telephone, and the bread and confectionery business of William Church Moir were among its prominent clients.
That spring [1896], on 27 April, Borden was in Ottawa arguing cases and went to dinner at Sir Charles Tupper's home. It was the day that Sir Mackenzie Bowell resigned as Conservative prime minister and Tupper was about to succeed him. It was clear that there would be an election before the year was out. Tupper asked Borden to stand for Halifax with the veteran Catholic mp Thomas Edward Kenny. John Fitzwilliam Stairs, Halifax businessman and Protestant colleague of Kenny in the House of Commons, was stepping down and Tupper wanted Borden to replace him. Before Borden left the dinner party, he accepted.
On election day, 23 June, Halifax voters, for only the second time since confederation, split their ticket. Both the Conservative and the Liberal Catholic candidates were defeated. Borden and Liberal Benjamin Russell, another prominent lawyer and Protestant, were elected.
On 7 Nov. 1900 the Conservatives were soundly defeated in another general election and Tupper was ready to give up the leadership at year's end. The more obvious candidates were veteran warriors such as George Eulas Foster and Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper. But they had acquired as many rivals and enemies as friends during their long careers, and their prospects of beating Laurier in a future election were dismal. The party needed a fresh face and the Tuppers, father and son, turned to Borden... On 6 February the members, many sceptically, chose Borden as their leader.
On 21 Sept. 1911 the Conservatives took all seven seats in British Columbia, eight of ten in Manitoba, and seventy-three of eighty-six in Ontario. In Quebec their representation jumped from eleven to twenty-seven. Borden's Tories had won 134 seats in the House of Commons; Laurier's Liberals were returned in 87 constituencies. Borden was the new prime minister of Canada.
From Biographi Canada