Discussions

was claimed to be Brandon's most influential leader. He came to Brandon in 1875, was son of a pioneer homesteader. He was the principal negotiator of the Crow's Nest Pass Agreement with the C.P.R., and presented Canada's case to the Alaska Boundary Tribunal in 1903. Sifton recruited Brandon's first Mayor, T. Mayne Daly, to become department solicitor, James Smart, Brandon's second Mayor, to be federal deputy, and Will J. White, founder of the Brandon Sun, to represent the department of the United States. He became proprietor of the Manitoba Free Press in 1898 and for its editorship recruited the legendary John W. Defoe who remained the dominant influence at the paper for forty years. Sifton broke with Laurier over school policy for the new provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and in 1911 he left the Liberal Party when it endorsed Reciprocity, or Free Trade with the U.S.. He was Knighted in 1915 after a number of years as chairman of the Canadian commission of Conservation. He died in 1929, leaving an estate estimated to be worth nearly $10 million.