View source for George Eulas Foster

{{Short description|Canadian politician}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=September 2021}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name             = Sir George Eulas Foster
| honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=CAN|size=100%|PC|GCMG}}
| image            = George Eulas Foster c 1920.jpg
| office           = Minister of Trade and Commerce
| term_start       = October 10, 1911
| term_end         = September 21, 1921
| primeminister    = [[Robert Borden]]
| predecessor      = [[Richard John Cartwright]]
| successor        = [[Henry Herbert Stevens]]
| office2          = [[Minister of Finance (Canada)|Minister of Finance]]
| term_start2      = May 29, 1888
| term_end2        = July 8, 1896
| primeminister2   = [[John A. Macdonald]]
| predecessor2     = [[Charles Tupper]]
| successor2       = [[William Stevens Fielding]]
| office3          = [[Minister of Marine and Fisheries]]
| term_start3      = December 10, 1885
| term_end3        = May 28, 1888
| primeminister3   = [[John A. Macdonald]]
| predecessor3     = [[Archibald McLelan]]
| successor3       = [[Charles Hibbert Tupper]]
| office4          = [[Senate of Canada|Senator]] for [[Ontario]]
| term_start4      = September 22, 1921
| term_end4        = December 30, 1931
| nominator4       = [[Arthur Meighen]]
| appointer4       = [[Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy|The Lord Byng of Vimy]]
| office5          = [[Member of Parliament (Canada)|Member of Parliament]]<br />for [[Toronto North]]
| term_start5      = January 11, 1905
| term_end5        = September 22, 1921
| predecessor5     = ''District created in 1903''
| successor5       = [[Thomas Langton Church]]
| office6          = [[Member of Parliament (Canada)|Member of Parliament]]<br />for [[York (federal electoral district)|York]]
| term_start6      = August 19, 1896
| term_end6        = February 6, 1901
| predecessor6     = [[Thomas Temple (Canadian politician)|Thomas Temple]]
| successor6       = [[Alexander Gibson (politician)|Alexander Gibson]]
| office7          = [[Member of Parliament (Canada)|Member of Parliament]]<br />for [[King's (New Brunswick federal electoral district)|King's]]
| term_start7      = February 8, 1883
| term_end7        = August 19, 1896
| predecessor7     = [[James Domville]]
| successor7       = [[James Domville]]
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1847|9|3}}
| birth_place      = [[Carleton County, New Brunswick|Carleton County]], [[Colony of New Brunswick]] (now [[Canada]])
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1931|12|30|1847|9|3}}
| death_place      = [[Ottawa]], [[Canada]]
| resting_place    = [[Beechwood Cemetery]]
| spouse           = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Adeline Davis Chisholm|July 2, 1889|September 17, 1919|end=d.}}
* {{marriage|Jessie Allan|1920}}
}}
| party            = [[Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942)|Conservative]]
| relations        = 
| children         = childless - no children from either marriage.
| residence        = 
| education        = [[University of New Brunswick]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]])
| occupation       = 
| profession       = 
| religion         = 
}}

'''Sir George Eulas Foster''' (September 3, 1847 &ndash; December 30, 1931) was a Canadian politician and academic.

Foster was a [[Member of Parliament (Canada)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) and a [[Senate of Canada|Senator]] in the Canadian Parliament for a total of 45 years, 5 months and 24 days. He enjoys the unique distinction of having served in the cabinets of seven [[List of Prime Ministers of Canada|Canadian Prime Ministers]]: Macdonald, Abbott, Thompson, Bowell, Tupper, Borden and Meighen.

He coined the phrase "[[splendid isolation]]" to praise British foreign policy in the late 19th century.<ref name="CNMP-H-78-KY-M-2012">{{cite web |title=How Did Alliances Contribute to WW1?|url=https://historyjustgotinteresting.com/4-main-causes-of-ww1/alliances-in-ww1/|access-date=13 April 2023 |work=historyjustgotinteresting.com|date=January 26, 2021 |language=en}}</ref>

Two factors thwarted whatever ambitions he may have had to become Prime Minister himself: his legally questionable marriage in Chicago to his newly divorced former landlady,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/davis_adeline_14E.html|title=Biography – DAVIS, ADELINE – Volume XIV (1911-1920) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography|website=www.biographi.ca|access-date=Oct 22, 2020}}</ref> and his later involvement in a trust company scandal.<ref>Augustus Bridle, ''Sons of Canada: Short Studies of Characteristic Canadians'' (Toronto: J.M. Dent, 1916) pp. 221-227.</ref>

==Background==

Foster was born September 3, 1847, in [[Carleton County, New Brunswick|Carleton County]], [[Colony of New Brunswick]].<ref name="NBLE"/> He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the [[University of New Brunswick]] in 1868.<ref>{{cite web |last=Brown |first=Roger Craig |date=2017 |title=FOSTER, Sir GEORGE EULAS |url=https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/foster_george_eulas_16E.html |website=[[Dictionary of Canadian Biography]] |location= |publisher=[[University of Toronto]]/[[Université Laval]] |access-date=June 17, 2025}}</ref> During his studies, he founded the ''University Monthly'', the university's student newspaper.<ref name="NBLE"/>

Foster taught in various high schools and seminaries until 1870 when he was appointed Professor of [[Classics]] and Ancient Literature in the University of New Brunswick. He shortly afterwards studied in [[Edinburgh]], [[Scotland]], and [[Heidelberg]], [[German Empire]], resuming his professorship in 1873. He resigned in 1879 and became a noted [[Temperance movement|temperance]] lecturer.<ref name="NBLE">{{Cite web |url=http://w3.stu.ca/stu/sites/nble/f/foster_george_e.html |title=Matthew Heiti, "Sir George E. Foster" in ''New Brunswick Literary Encyclopedia'' (Spring 2009), accessed December 21, 2015 |access-date=21 December 2015 |archive-date=22 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222114728/http://w3.stu.ca/stu/sites/nble/f/foster_george_e.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Politics==

Foster entered politics with his election to the [[House of Commons of Canada]] in the [[1882 Canadian federal election|1882 federal election]] as a [[Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942)|Conservative]] MP representing [[New Brunswick]]. He joined the [[Cabinet of Canada|Cabinet]] of Sir [[John A. Macdonald]] as [[Minister of Fisheries and Oceans (Canada)|Minister of Marine and Fisheries]] in 1885, and was promoted to [[Minister of Finance (Canada)|Minister of Finance]] in 1888. Foster retained this position after Macdonald's death and through the successive governments of Prime Ministers [[John Abbott|Abbott]], [[John Sparrow David Thompson|Thompson]], [[Mackenzie Bowell|Bowell]] and [[Charles Tupper|Tupper]]. He led a group of seven cabinet ministers who resigned temporarily in January 1896 to force the retirement of Bowell, who denounced them as a 'nest of traitors'. Foster's debates with Sir [[Richard John Cartwright|Richard Cartwright]], the former Liberal Minister of Finance under Prime Minister [[Alexander Mackenzie (politician)|Mackenzie]], are the stuff of Canadian Parliamentary legend.

With the defeat of the Tories in the [[1896 Canadian federal election|1896 election]], Foster retained his seat and joined the [[Opposition (parliamentary)|Opposition]]. He was a prominent supporter of Canada's involvement in the [[Second Boer War|Anglo-Boer War]] from 1899 to 1901. He lost his seat in the [[1900 Canadian federal election|1900 election]] but returned to parliament [[1904 Canadian federal election|in 1904]], this time representing the [[electoral district (Canada)|riding]] of [[Toronto North]] in [[Ontario]]. He remained an Opposition MP until his party returned to government in the [[1911 Canadian federal election|1911 federal election]] under Sir [[Robert Borden]] and he continued in the government under [[Arthur Meighen]].

During his final years in cabinet, Foster served as Minister of Trade and Commerce, and received a knighthood (KCMG) in 1914 for his work in the Royal Commission on Imperial Trade; he was named to the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Imperial Privy Council]] in 1916 and elevated to GCMG in 1918.<ref>W. Stewart Wallace, ''The Memoirs of The Rt. Hon. Sir George Foster, P.C., G.C.M.G.'' (Toronto: Macmillan, 1933) pp. 174, 179, 189.</ref> He served as a Canadian delegate to the 1919 [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Versailles Peace Conference]]. He was acting Prime Minister in 1920, when Borden was absent due to ill health. From 1920 to 1921, he was chairman of the Canadian delegation to the first assembly of the [[League of Nations]]. In 1921, he was appointed to the [[Senate of Canada|Canadian Senate]] in which he served until his death.

==="Splendid isolation"===
[[File:George_Eulas_Foster,_1847-1931_(cropped).jpg|left|thumb|George Eulas Foster in 1919]]
Foster is known for coining the term "splendid isolation" in January 1896 when praising Britain's foreign policy of isolation from European affairs.

The term was popularized by [[George Goschen, 1st Viscount Goschen|Lord Goschen]], [[First Lord of the Admiralty]], during a speech at Lewes on 26 February 1896: "We have stood here alone in what is called isolation&nbsp;– our splendid isolation, as one of our colonial friends was good enough to call it."<ref name="auto">Angela Partington, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations'' (4th ed. 1992).</ref> The phrase had appeared in a headline in ''[[The Times]]'', on 22 January 1896, paraphrasing a comment by Foster to the [[Parliament of Canada]] on 16 January 1896: "In these somewhat troublesome days when the great Mother Empire stands splendidly isolated in Europe."<ref name="auto"/>

The ultimate origin of "splendid isolation" is suggested in Robert Hamilton's ''Canadian Quotations and Phrases'',<ref>Robert M. Hamilton. ''Canadian Quotations and Phrases: Literary and Historical'' (McClelland and Stewart, 1952).</ref> which places the Foster quotation beneath a passage from the following paragraph from Cooney's ''Compendious History of Northern New Brunswick and Gaspé'' (reprinted in 1896) describing England's situation in 1809–1810 during the [[Napoleonic Wars]]:<blockquote>In the midst of this terrific commotion, England stood erect: wrapt up in her own impregnability, the storm could not affect her: and therefore, while others trembled in its blast, she smiled at its fury. Never did the 'Empress Island' appear so magnificently grand;&nbsp;– she stood by herself, and there was a peculiar splendour in the loneliness of her glory.<ref>Robert Cooney, ''Compendious History of Northern New Brunswick and Gaspé'' (1832) p. 8, reprinted 1896.</ref></blockquote>

This, in turn, echoes the stoicism of [[Marcus Aurelius]]: "Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it."<ref>Marcus Aurelius, ''Meditations'' (1862) transl. George Long, Book IV.</ref>

==Death and family==

His first wife was the ex-spouse of [[Daniel Black Chisholm]], a former Liberal-Conservative Ontario MP, and his second wife was a daughter of [[William Allan (English politician)|Sir William Allan]], a former British MP for Gateshead.

He died without children. Foster and his first wife are buried in Ottawa's [[Beechwood Cemetery]], near the grave of Sir [[Cecil Spring Rice]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.beechwoodottawa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/the_beechwood_way_30_en.2013.pdf|title=Jacques Faille, "The fascinating lives of Sir George Eulas and Lady Adeline Foster" in ''The Beechwood Way'', vol. 8, issue 30 (Summer 2013), pp. 4-5, accessed December 21, 2015|access-date=Oct 22, 2020|archive-date=22 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222114857/http://www.beechwoodottawa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/the_beechwood_way_30_en.2013.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Following his death, Foster's widow granted Canadian historian [[William Stewart Wallace]] permission to produce an authorized biography of her late husband. Wallace was provided manuscripts, papers, and diary entries handwritten by Foster, including an unfinished [[autobiography]]. Wallace's biography of Foster, titled ''The Memoirs of the Rt. Hon. Sir George Foster,'' was published in 1933.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Memoirs of The Rt. Hon. Sir George Foster P.C., G.C.M.G|last=Wallace|first=William|publisher=Macmillan|year=1933|location=Toronto|page=v}}</ref>

== Archives ==

There is a George Foster [[fonds]] at [[Library and Archives Canada]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=George Foster fonds, Library and Archives Canada|url=http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=fonandcol&id=104832&lang=enf|access-date=September 3, 2020}}</ref>

== Electoral record ==

{{1882 Canadian federal election/King's}}

By-election: On election being declared void

{{CanElec1-by|7 November 1882}}
{{CANelec|CA|Conservative (historical)|George Eulas Foster |2,005}}
{{CANelec|CA|Conservative (historical)|[[James Domville]] |1,723}}
{{end}}

By-election: On Mr. Foster's acceptance of the office of Minister of Marine and Fisheries

{{CanElec1-by|31 December 1885}}
{{CANelec|CA|Conservative (historical)|George Eulas Foster |}}
{{CANelec|CA|Independent Conservative|[[James Domville]]|}}
{{end}}
{{1887 Canadian federal election/King's}}
{{1891 Canadian federal election/King's}}

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==

{{Wikisource1911Enc|Foster, George Eulas}}
* {{commons category-inline}}
* {{Canadian Parliament links|ID=16557}}
* [https://archive.org/details/canadianparliame00montuoft The Canadian Parliament; biographical sketches and photo-engravures of the senators and members of the House of Commons of Canada. Being the tenth Parliament, elected November 3, 1904.]
* [http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/foster_george_eulas_16E.html Robert Craig Brown, "FOSTER, SIR GEORGE EULAS" in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 16, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–    ]
* [http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/QuebecHistory/encyclopedia/SirGeorgeFoster.htm Sir George Foster &ndash; The Quebec History Encyclopedia]
* [https://data2.archives.ca/ap/a/a027772.jpg Library and Archives Canada &ndash; image of Lady Adeline Foster and Sir George Eulas Foster]
* {{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7985122/sir_george_foster_dies_canadas/|title=Sir George Foster Dies -- Canada's Grand Old Man|work=The Ottawa Journal|date=31 Dec 1931|page=4|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=24 December 2016}}

{{CanMinFinance}}
{{CA-Ministers of Fisheries}}
{{CA-Ministers for International Trade}}

{{Authority control}}

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