Alexander Galt
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The Honourable Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt GCMG PC |
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Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt in 1869
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| Member of the Canadian Parliament for Sherbrooke (Town of) |
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In office 1867–1872 |
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| Preceded by | District created |
| Succeeded by | Edward Towle Brooks |
| 1st Canadian Minister of Finance | |
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In office July 1, 1867 – November 7, 1867 |
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| Prime Minister | John A. Macdonald |
| Preceded by | Office created |
| Succeeded by | Sir John Rose, 1st Baronet |
| 1st Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom | |
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In office 1888–1883 |
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| Preceded by | Sir John Rose, 1st Baronet (as Financial Commissioner) |
| Succeeded by | Charles Tupper |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
September 6, 1817 Chelsea, England |
| Died | September 19, 1893 (aged 76) Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Political party | Liberal-Conservative |
| Relations | John Galt, father |
Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, GCMG CB PC (September 6, 1817 – September 19, 1893), was a politician and a father of Canadian Confederation.
He was born in Chelsea, England, the son of a Scottish novelist and colonizer, John Galt, by his wife Elizabeth, only daughter of Alexander Tilloch. He was a first cousin of Sir Hugh Allan of Montreal.
He was a member of the Great Coalition government in the Province of Canada that secured Confederation between 1864 and 1867. He became a leading figure in the creation of the Coalition when he was asked to become premier of the Province of Canada by then Governor General Sir Edmund Walker Head. Doubting his own ability to demand the loyalty of the majority of members of the Legislative Assembly, he turned down the position, but recommended that George-Étienne Cartier and John A. Macdonald be asked to become co-leaders of the new government.
In return, Cartier and Macdonald asked him to become Inspector-General of Canada. He accepted the post on the condition that Macdonald and Cartier made Confederation a key platform in their new government. In 1858, Alexander Tilloch Galt made a motion in the Legislature at Kingston recommending that the Province of Canada ask the British Government to create a federal union of British North America (Canada East and West, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia) and Rupert's Land (owned by the Hudson's Bay Company). The motion succeeded, and Alexander Galt, John Ross, and Sir George-Étienne Cartier went to London to begin the long process of convincing the British to make British North America into the first sovereign Dominion within the British Empire.
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