legal talents, he should as a matter of course be appointed to the bench. Monk himself reportedly admitted to Robert Laird Borden, the federal Conservative leader from 1901, that he cherished such an ambition, but only after he had set out on the path of politics.

Monk’s political career extended from 1896 to 1914. Elected Conservative mp for Jacques-Cartier in 1896, he was returned for this riding in 1900, 1904, 1908, and 1911. He was thus the only Conservative mp from the province to survive 15 years of Wilfrid Laurier’s regime.

Throughout his political career, Monk tried to reform the Conservative party along the lines of the nationalist principles supported by the majority of French Canadians, and he worked to give it credibility in Quebec so it might become thepre-eminent force in the province. It was not long before he had an opportunity to make his views known. The uproar surrounding the Manitoba school question [see Thomas Greenway*] prompted him late in 1896 to demand equality for French and English throughout Canada. The South African War from 1899 to 1902 [see Sir Frederick William Borden] led him to demand increasing autonomy for the country in all political, military, and commercial relations with Great Britain.

Highly regarded, Monk rose rapidly through party ranks. On 6 Feb. 1901 Borden named him leader of the Quebec Conservatives, an appointment enabling him to expound within the party his vision of the Canadian nation. Thus on 18 November he put forward a political program entitled “Canada for Canadians,” which reiterated the concepts he