He was a member of the coalition government that secured Confederation between 1864 and 1867. He served as the first Minister of Finance in the new confederation and was the main architect of the Cayley-Galt Tariff., and became the first Canadian High Commissioner in London in 1880.
Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, PC (September 6, 1817–September 19, 1893) was an English-born Canadian politician, and a father of Canadian Confederation.
AlexanderGalt is interred in the Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal, Quebec.
Galt's company, the North Western Coal and Navigation Company, was instrumental in establishing the coal mining industry of Lethbridge, Alberta in the late 1800s, and subsequently the community itself.
Galt personally contributed £500, and when in 1847 the factory was on the verge of bankruptcy, hampered by the constraints of its charter and the inability of numerous small shareholders to pay for their subscribed shares, Galt himself bought back the assets for British American Land.
Galt was, however, too closely linked at the time to the railway enterprises receiving government subsidies for his reputation not to be sullied by the regular and vicious attacks in both houses of parliament denouncing the collusion between politicians and these companies.
Galt soon suffered in his new duties, however, because of the ambiguity of his status, insufficient financial resources to maintain the lifestyle required in the capital of the empire, and the tensions between his penchant for publicly revealing every notion he entertained and the Canadian governments desire to see him maintain greater diplomatic discretion.
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