Cartier, Sir George-Étienne, lawyer, railway promoter, politician, prime minister of the Province of Canada (b at St-Antoine, Lower Canada 6 Sept 1814; d at London, Eng 20 May 1873). From a wealthy family of grain exporters and millers, and supposedly a descendant of Jacques CARTIER, he was a FATHER OF CONFEDERATION and dominated the politics of Québec for a generation. A graduate of the Sulpician Collège de Montréal and called to the bar in 1835, Cartier joined the radical FILS DE LA LIBERTÉ (Sons of Liberty), composed the patriotic song "O Canada, mon pays, mes amours" - perhaps the model for the later national anthem - and was secretary of the reorganized ST-JEAN-BAPTISTE SOCIETY in 1843.
In 1837 at SAINT-DENIS, Cartier fought bravely alongside Wolfred Nelson and the rebels as they successfully routed Colonel Charles Gore's Waterloo veterans. After a narrow escape and exile in Vermont, he successfully petitioned in 1838 to return and practise law in Montréal. Specializing in property and railway promotion, Cartier was active in politics and became Louis-Hippolyte LAFONTAINE's campaign manager and right-hand man. With responsible government won, he agreed to run as a Liberal Reformer in Verchères in 1848. He moved to Montréal East in 1861 after the coalition with the Upper Canadian Conservatives, and as Bleu chief served as copremier with John A. MACDONALD in the Union parliaments of 1857-58 and 1858-62, in which ministry he set in motion the movement toward CONFEDERATION.
Cartier involved himself heavily in the development of the GRAND TRUNK RY, becoming its solicitor. After his election, despite government assistance to the line he served, he became chairman of the Railway Committee of Parliament. He was a driving force in the early promotion of the CPR, with the goal of making Montréal the terminus of a transcontinental trading network. Rival railway promoters funded his defeat in Montréal E by Louis-Amable Jetté of the short-lived Parti national in 1872 and engineered the release in April 1873 of election fund-raising telegrams - the so-called PACIFIC SCANDAL. Cartier, whose letters had promised Sir Hugh ALLAN the railway contract, was already mortally ill with Bright's disease. He died soon after seeking treatment in London and the CPR languished for almost a decade.
Cartier's accomplishments included ensuring the choice of Ottawa as the national capital and reconciling the majority of French Canada to Confederation on the grounds that it made possible the re-establishment of the old Province of Québec. He negotiated in London for the transfer of the HBC territory of RUPERT'S LAND to the Dominion. While acting Prime Minister during Macdonald's illnesses and after personal meetings with provincial delegations, he played the primary role in drafting the Manitoba and British Columbia Acts. He probably met with RIEL, who idolized him, and after passage of the Manitoba Act sent many of his own handpicked men to administer the new province. A former rebel against the Crown, this great patriot served as Canada's first minister of militia and defence.
AUTHOR: ALASTAIR SWEENY
READING: J. Boyd, Sir George Étienne Cartier (1914); Alastair Sweeny, George-Étienne Cartier (1976); B. Young, Sir George-Étienne Cartier (1981).
