A Family of Nation Builders. The Story of the Galts: Sir Alexander Galt, Financier and Father of Confederation

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
A Family of Nation Builders. The Story of the Galts: Sir Alexander Galt, Financier and Father of Confederation
Abstract
The London-born businessman and politician Alexander Tilloch Galt (1817-1893)immigrated to Lower Canada in 1828, but returned to England in 1830. He returned to Lower Canada again in 1835 as a bookkeeper in the newly formed Eastern Townships-based British American Land Company, situated in Sherbrooke, and by 1844 was the Canadian commissioner for the company. With the company's concurrence, Galt began investing BALC money as well as his own in the industrialization of Sherbrooke. He also invested in the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad, thus ending the Eastern Townships' isolation from Montreal and the eastern seaboard of the United States. In 1849, Galt was elected as the member of the Legislative Assembly for Sherbrooke, and became a supporter of the idea of the federation of the British North American colonies. He was a member of the 1864 delegation that went to Charlottetown to meet with the Maritime Premiers to discuss a legislative union, and was a member of the 1866 delegation that went to London to draw up the text of the union.
Publication
Saturday Night
Volume
Vol. 42
Issue
no. 36
Date
July 23, 1927
Pages
4-5
Language
en
Citation
Burpee, Lawrence J. “A Family of Nation Builders. The Story of the Galts: Sir Alexander Galt, Financier and Father of Confederation.” Saturday Night, July 23, 1927.
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