Wilfrid Laurier

Wilfrid Laurier was born in Saint-Lin, Canada East, in 1841, trained as a lawyer in Montreal and entered politics as a Liberal in the 1870s. He became Liberal leader in 1887 and won the 1896 election, becoming Canada's first francophone prime minister. He governed until 1911, a period of rapid immigration, railway building and Prairie settlement that saw Alberta and Saskatchewan created in 1905. He lost the 1911 election over reciprocity with the United States and the navy question, and remained opposition leader until his death in 1919.

Admirers see Laurier as a great conciliator who held English and French Canada together, expanded Canadian autonomy within the British Empire and presided over an era of growth that settled the West. His 15 years in office remain the longest unbroken term of any Canadian prime minister, and his 'sunny ways' phrase was revived by Justin Trudeau in 2015. Critics note that the Manitoba compromise did not restore Catholic separate schools, and historians point to the Chinese head tax increases and the 1911 order-in-council aimed at Black American migrants as evidence of racially restrictive immigration policy. His opposition to conscription in 1917 left the Liberals divided along language lines.