Canada’s Leading Conservative Extols “the Country of the Twentieth Century.” THOUGH he lost his fight against Sir Wilfrid Laurier for the Premiership of Canada in the general election of 1904, Robert Laird Borden is still one of the Dominion’s important figures. He is in the prime of life. He has conspicuous ability, remarkable energy and an indomitable will. What a man with this combination of qualities sets his mind upon he usually obtains. Mr. Borden freely acknowledges his ambition to reach the top notch of political success, and there are a great many Canadians who believe that he will yet be Premier. His party, in spite of his defeat, has strong faith in him, and his opponents, now triumphant, admit that he is formidable—a menace to their continuing success. They feel that under the scrutiny of Borden, who is notably quick to detect weak spots in the armor of the enemy, and to drive home strong thrusts, they must put their best foot front. Thus, even in defeat, Mr. Borden is a power. My first impression of him was obtained in Montreal. He was walking through a hotel rotunda with the long, swift strides that bespeak much physical energy. His head was bowed and his eyes were knit. He struck me at the moment as being a personification of determination and concentration. It was a little later, in his room, that I had my talk with him. Mr. Borden’s head is large. His brow rises straight up from heavy brows and eyes which are deep-set and rather small, and twinkle with shrewdness and good nature. The lower part of his face is heavy, indicating the strength of will and purpose which have carried him to the front in Canadian politics. “I am much interested in success,” he said with a smile. “Indeed, the air in Canada nowadays is charged with it. We have a feeling that a far larger part of the success of Canada lies in the future rather than in the past. While the United States developed more in the nineteenth century than any other country in the world, we believe that Canada will show similar industrial advances within the next quarter of a century. We entertain the idea that ours will prove to be the country of the twentieth century. It is not yet as widely known as it should be that we have a somewhat larger area in land than the United States and that this land is not rendered sterile by the winter reign of the mythical personage called ‘our lady of the snows,’ but is capable of remarkable productivity.