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Tupper was the natural
choice for Prime Minister after John A
Macdonald died but had to wait for 3
other men to fill that position until he
final became Prime Minister. Born in
Amherst, Nova Scotia on July 2, 1821,
Tupper grew up in Nova Scotia and
attended medical school in Edinburgh
Scotland. He established a medical
practice in Amherst in 1843.
He entered political life by being elected to the Nova
Scotia assembly in 1855. He became provincial secretary in 1857 and premier
in 1864. He was elected to the federal parliament in 1867 and stayed there
until 1884, then returned in 1887-88 and from 1896-1900. After standing
aside from Canada's first federal cabinet he was at various times later
president of the privy council, minister of inland revenue, of public works,
of railways and canals, of finance and secretary of state. In addition, he
was Canadian High Commissioner in London from 1884 until 1887, and from 1888
to 1896. That year he returned to Canada to take the secretary of state
portfolio and eventually to become prime minister when Sir Mackenzie Bowell
was forced out of office by a "nest of traitors". In the election six
months later his party was defeated. Sir Charles led the opposition until
1900 when he suffered a personal election defeat in Cape Breton and retired.
He had been knighted in 1879 and created a baronet in 1888.
He died at Bexley Heath, Kent, England on Oct. 30, 1915
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