Sir Charles Tupper was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia, and earned his medical degree from Edinburgh University in 1843. He left a successful medical practice in 1855 to enter the provincial assembly of Nova Scotia. Provincial secretary from 1856 to 1860, and premier from 1864 to 1867, he took a leading role in the movement for Confederation. From 1867 to 1884 he sat as a conservative in the Federal House of Commons. He was Canada's first Minister of Railways and Canals (1879-1884), and introduced the bill for the C.P.R. charter (1881). From 1884 to 1896 he served as High Commissioner to London, and he was Prime Minister for a brief period in 1896. Thereafter Tupper lead the Opposition until 1900, when an election defeat occasioned his retirement from public life.