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Continued. Sir Wilfrid Laurier (Lib.) Prime Minister 1896-1911 Canada's first French-Canadian prime minister, Laurier, tried to be a bridge between the founding races, but he found to his dismay that he was sometimes misunderstood by both. Once he complained: "I am branded in Quebec as a traitor to the French and in Ontario as a traitor to the English. In Quebec I am branded as a Jingo and in Ontario as a Separatist. In Quebec I am attacked as an Imperialist and in Ontario as an anti-Imperialist." Under Laurier's aggressive immigration policy, Canada prospered, and under his statesmanship, the country took its first steps toward independent nationhood. His defeat in 1911 resulted from his calling for lower import duties, a move Canadians interpreted as a drift toward union with the United States. Laurier saw it differently, however. He wrote to a friend: "It is becoming more and more manifest to me that it was not reciprocity that was defeated but a Catholic premier." Loyal to Britain (he declared a political truce in 1914), he nevertheless was an ardent nationalist and when conscription threatened, in 1917, he fought it tooth and nail. When the country split on the issue, Laurier told his secretary: "I have lived too long." A scholar, an orator, a man of great charm, Laurier was mourned even by his bitterest opponents when he died in 1919 at the age of 77. He is buried in Notre-Dame Cemetery in Ottawa. Sir Robert Borden (Cons.) Prime Minister 1911-1920 Canada's prime minister during the First World War, Borden, in his able, orderly fashion, mobilized the country to support Britain and was so successful that, from a population of 8,000,-000, Canada sent 425,000 servicemen overseas. Borden carried on the work, begun by Laurier, to achieve full inde- pendence for Canada. During his term of office he was often ill, but he carried on until poor health and the realization that he was unable to deal with the problems of a new post-war society forced his retirement. He died in 1937 just before his 83rd birthday and is buried in Beechwood Cemetery, Ottawa. Arthur Meighen (Cons.) Prime Minister 1920-1921, 1926 Borden's successor, Meighen, was defeated after only 17 months in office. Although he was brilliant and ambitious, hard times, a lack of imagination and a sour public image were among the things that conspired to defeat Meighen. Five years later, he was prime minister for a few months on the invitation of the Governor-General after Mackenzie King's request for dissolution of Parliament was refused. King was re-elected when he convinced the electorate he had been unhorsed unjustly, and tfrat the Governor-General had threatened Canadian independence. Meighen died at 86 in 1960 and is buried in St. Marys, Ont., near London.