Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper

Tupper, Sir Charles Hibbert
Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper, politician, cabinet minister (b at Amherst, NS 3 Aug 1855; d at Vancouver, BC 30 Mar 1927). Second son of Sir Charles TUPPER, he was educated at McGill and Harvard. He practised law in Halifax before being elected Conservative MP for Pictou, a seat he held until his retirement from public life in 1904. Appointed minister of marine and fisheries in 1888, he was the youngest member of a federal Cabinet to that time. Although opponents claimed he owed his rapid elevation to his father, Tupper proved to be a hardworking minister who gained a thorough understanding of the fisheries in Canada. As agent for Great Britain he contributed to the victory of Canada's case in the BERING SEA DISPUTE with the US, 1893. Called "bumptious" by Sir John MACDONALD, Tupper showed himself to be a passionate, if argumentative, nationalist in advancing Canada's fishing interests. In 1894 he was promoted to minister of justice in the government of Sir Mackenzie BOWELL, where he drafted the unsuccessful remedial bill for the restoration of Roman Catholic schools in Manitoba (see MANITOBA SCHOOLS QUESTION). In Jan 1896 he resigned from Cabinet in protest against its ineffective leadership. From May to July 1896 he was solicitor general in the short-lived administration of his father. He practised law in Vancouver after his political retirement in 1904.

Author D.M.L. FARR