CANADA’S NEW PREMIER.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 18, 4 January 1912, Page 3

CANADA’S NEW PREMIER.

Robert Laird Borden, the Nova Scotia lawyer, who lias assumed the post of Canadian Premier, lias long been noted for Ids lack of •‘personality.” Ho cannot bo eloquent. Ho lacks magnetism. Nor is ho witty. Neither inis ho temperament nor much of any louring beyond the somewhat arid lore of the practising advocate. Students of the personality of the man who foiled the reciprocity scheme of the imposing President Taft and the brilliant Sir William Laurier agree that the new Prime Minister of the Dominion incarnates the average and the ordinary in human character. Beginning luckily in Grand Pro, Nova Scotia, as the child of British colonists, young Borden went quietly enough* through school and college, read law and began to practice. He married, settled down and was chosen to the provincial assembly without attracting any particular attention. There was that in his manner and appearance to invite obscurity. Yet one valuable gift is his—Mr. Borden inspires instant and complete confidence in any human being w s ho looks at him. This, if we may accept the verdict of the Canadian press, is the solitary personal asset of the man, an asset based, however, upon absolute honesty. Several years have passed since first the London “Post” noted how strongly Robert Laird Borden had entrenched himself in the leadership of the Conservative Party throughout the Dominion. Not that he had imposed himself upon his followers. They have been won over—slowly, hut surely—by the force of qualities in themselves neither brilliant nor attractive. Mr. Borden is conspicuously destitute of those shining traits for which Sir Wilfrid Laurier seems indebted to a Gallic origin. Every quality of Borden’s is British. For that very, reason, as the London , organ says, his growth in popularity has been as slow as his growth in fame. People begin bv wondering how so very simple and humdrum a character" can he the leader of anybody or of anything. His tact and his insight alike desert him when he has to deal with themes and persons removed from the commonplace and practical. His mind may not ho a desert, but it has been happily compared by oneof his opponents to the extremely flat surface .of a table upon which one would place ■ bread and ■ butter and beef instead of flowers and flutes.

There is a striking resemblance he- , tween President Taft and Mr. Borden in the matter of temper. Both are lawyers who have brought the lb- 1 gal method and the legal spirit into politics. The judicial temperament,' remarks the London “Times,” finds an ideal expression in these two. Sobriety of statement is not more char-, acteristic of Mr. Taft’s public manner than it is of Mr. Borden’s, the analogy losing nothing -from .the deliberate. argumentative style in which the Dominion statesman loves to phrase his ideas. Mr. Borden could not make a flamboyant speech. In truth, his deficiency as an orator is one explanation, according to many students of his career, of the extremely slow rise from obscurity to renown which would have driven any other loader to desperation, Mr. Borden simply plodded and lie has-the plod-.' der’s love of quiet work. Humour seems to have been' denied him—using' the word in the find iMerodithUiri sense. He is so matter-of-fact as to render subjects exciting in thom-r selves, like war and a Canadian navy, prosaje.,.. .Ho.. .SU»I\QS. A - ADPPfJIv- A O -.')- . plains the Toronto “Globe,” as if it wore an argument in Court. “He/ iWtiU nihvor ho loved by hip.par-, ty,” VdiitPin tlie Londoi} “ROM,’ ; . : “as the brilliant and irresistible.' Sir' John Macdonald was loved. He will never ho able to display the tremendous driving force of Sir Charles r J upper.” His strength lies entirely hr his personal integrity and in the impression of safety and solidity, which ho makes upon his country. There is so little of the complex in Mr. Bor-deiL'-thaG ms “the Montreal “Herald” . isnyjfotfte ohildoicould understaM’ffi ~HQ;.;nnVv'tPi-ixwln>t he talked ah,o.utVL;'As; •' a,if.pcctac|o,, l,ie is acki)o<xd'feaged^ i his. warmed parfc’sapsTtpT he /dishij- • pointing: 'No one ,)jsttl«'mveYr*£cond * look lit liim in a c^\(d;| :v His' j ificlmes To dr'hus.hjhess"; . 'cafeful / •combing’ ‘does Tot i: suhcHie,/a,iKl IffiV-)ias tiser additional, mjs.forturie to' sheln‘ to the ..Toronto “Globe” find"' its /liberal . contemporaries a little won U-and faded I by many years of struggle to attain olfice. He dresses with simplicity in the decent black of the/advocate,/ A plain gold watch reposes iil his waistcoat pocket, a chain, depending , inconspiculously _and comprising his 'only visible jewellery. Jn Parliament and on Court days Mr. Borden affects a frock coat and high collars with plain neckties of the sort known technically as four-in-hands. On the street lie paces with remarkable swiftness. His complexion is distinctly pale. Some years ago Mr. Borden suffered from a run-down state of health that alarmed his friends. He has entirely recovered from that indisposition. His keen and steely eyes are brght and clear. Only the* growng whiteness of the hair reveals how nearly Mr. Borden has reached sixty. ' • Mr, Borden had sat in the Dominion Parliament for only one term when, ' a number of years ago, ho was chosen leader of the Conservative, party. It was well known at • that time, we , read in the Montreal “Witness,” that he accepted the honour with reluct- '■ ance. He is not wealthy. He was comparatively unknown outside his native Nova Scotia. His practice at the bar was lucrative, for no lawyer in the entire Dominion has a firmer grasp of the principles underlying the practice of the law in Canada. He has been retained in more than oud case of natiVnml importance. His briefs are models of lucidity in argument and citation. nor arc his talents at the service of great corporations. Mr. Borden lias fought some of the largest special and vested interests. As a lawyer he is terse, cold, calculating, but convincing. His . success at the bar is attributed to an unremitting industry. He leaves no verification subordinates. Decisions, statutes, and decrees bearing upon a point at Hsue are gone through by Mr. Borden with the plodding care so, characteristic of [dm until ho lias bis case at bis finger's end and can talk to the Court upon its least detail. The practice Fault up by Mr, Boydon in his slow fashion was large hud even lucrative for one accustomed to Nova Scotia, but most of it had co 1m sacrificed when in his first term , s legislator he was made chief of jiis party. This forced upon him acceptance of a public salary as loader ol the Parliamentary opposition. He could not have lived upon Ins private means. The heated discussion which ensued in many partisan organs of Canadian opinion at the time hrougat out the honesty which is the basis, of Mr. Borden’s character. He freely conceded how grave were the misgivings with which he accented Die linanml arrangement made for him. More than once was he diseased to declare its impracticability and to move for its termination. Moreover, as the London “Post” says, the organs of the Canaidian .Government, which proposed the

arrangement,' were 'not" generous in their treatment of Mr. Borden. They suggested that ho was the paid servant of the Cabinet then in office, and debarred from criticising Ministers by his acceptance of the special indemnity which Parliament had provided for tile Opposition leader. It was in the fury of the fray over this topic that the wonderful patience of Mr. Borden won him the admiration of lijis countrymen. He has the contagious calm of the strong man. Will-power is the force behind the success attained by Mr. Borden.