War Horse of Cumberland: The Life and Times of Sir Charles Tupper

Alexander Craig is a freelance journalist in Lennoxville, Quebec.

“Next to Macdonald the man who did most to bring Canada into Confederation was Sir Charles Tupper,” declared Wilfrid Laurier. When Tupper died in 1915 at the age of 94 people everywhere sensed that the last of the nation-builders, the man behind the ‘national policy’ was gone forever.

Durant’s biography of Tupper is written in an easy-going, highly readable style. There is no index, but he does provide 10 pages of ‘endnotes.’ Different points of view on Tupper, those of contemporaries and subsequent observers, are included.

The author has distilled a wide range of material to give us a sense of the times. He devotes a lot of time to lively debate over Nova Scotia’s entry into Confederation. He quotes, for example, the Halifax Citizen, a Liberal, anti-Confederation newspaper, which declared that Tupper “... would annex this Province to Canada, or to Massachusetts or to the moon, or propose to do so …” in order to “divert attention from local issues.”

Perhaps one of the strongest parts of the book is the way in which Durant portrays debates over the issues of the day. He also successfully illustrates just how different life was in those days, such as in the religious conflicts of pre-Confederation Nova Scotia. There is an interesting set of photos, too.