ABSTRACT
Early Life Robert Laird Borden was born in the small village of Grand Pre, Nova Scotia. His mother, Eunice, a woman of strong character and high energy, exercised a dominant influence on his life. His father, Andrew, owned a farm but chiefly was occupied in business affairs, in which he was only moderately successful. At fifteen, Borden cut short his formal education to accept the post of assistant master at the private school which he attended. At nineteen, Borden accepted the position of assistant master at Glenwood Institute at Matawan, New Jersey. Remaining in teaching offered very little in the way of future prospects. He therefore turned to the study of law at a Halifax law firm and was admitted to the bar in 1878. After his marriage to Laura Bond in 1898, Borden, a strikingly handsome man, founded a law firm in Halifax that later became one of the largest and most successful in the maritime provinces. In 1896, he accepted the Conservative nomination for Halifax, largely as a result of his friendship with Sir Charles Tupper, one of the original "fathers of confederation."
