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Sir John Thompson(Cons.) Prime Minister 1892-1894 A man of great promise (Sir John A. Macdonald regarded him as his greatest discovery), Thompson was only 50 when he died in 1894, after two years in office and before he had time to make much of a mark on Canadian history. A backroom boy once said of him: "He will never make a politician. He won't even consider whether a thing is good for the party until he is quite sure it is good for the country." He died at Windsor Castle in England while he was being installed as a member of Queen Victoria's Privy Council. He is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Halifax, which, except for the steeple of the church in the background, survived the 1917 explosion. Sir John Abbott (Cons.) Prime Minister 1891-1892 The first of four Conservative prime ministers to follow Macdonald in rapid succession, Abbott did not like politics and he did not want to become prime minister. Ill health forced him to resign after only 18 months in office. A few days before Macdonald's death he wrote a friend: "I hate politics .... I hate notoriety, public meetings, public speeches, caucuses and everything that I know of that is apparently the necessary incident of politics - except doing public work to the best of my ability." He died in 1893 at 72 and is buried in Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal. Sir Charles Tupper (Cons.) Prime Minister 1896 Tupper, at 75, resigned as Canadian high commissioner in London to fight Wilfrid Laurier in the 1896 election. Since Macdonald's death, one issue had dominated Canadian politics - the Manitoba government's decision to end state aid to Roman Catholic schools. Tupper backed the French minority in Manitoba; Laurier backed the province and its rights. English Canada voted for Laurier because of his stand and French Canada in spite of it. It was an abrupt end for Tupper, who had been largely responsible, in the 1860s, for bringing Nova Scotia into Confederation. He died in England in 1915 at 94 and is buried in St. John's Cemetery, Halifax, Sir MacKenize Bowell (Cons.) Prime Minister 1896 The third of Macdonald's successors, Bowell took over on the death of Thompson. Described by writer Bruce Hutchison, in his book, Mr. Prime Minister as "a tiny, stupid man," Bowell feuded with his cabinet on the Manitoba schools issue and eventually seven of his ministers demanded his resignation. In a rage, Bowell branded them "a nest of traitors," but he finally capitulated and accepted Sir Charles Tup-per as his successor a few months before the 1896 election. He was almost 94 when he died in 1917. He is buried in Belleville Cemetery at Belleville, Ont.