Wilfred Laurier, elected Canada’s seventh prime minister…

Wilfred Laurier, elected Canada’s seventh prime minister in 1896, will lead Canada during a period of rapid growth, industrialization and immigration.

His long career straddles a period of major political and economic change.

As Prime Minister he will be instrumental in gaining greater autonomy from Britain for his country.
 
One of Laurier's first acts as Prime Minister is to implement a solution to the Manitoba Schools Question, which had helped to bring down the Conservative government of Charles Tupper earlier in 1896

The Manitoba legislature had passed a law eliminating public funding for Catholic schooling (thereby going against the federal constitutional Manitoba Act, 1870, which guaranteed Catholic and Protestant religious education rights).

The Catholic minority had asked the federal Government for support, and eventually the Conservatives proposed remedial legislation to override Manitoba's legislation.

Laurier had opposed the remedial legislation on the basis of provincial rights, and succeeded in blocking its passage by Parliament.

Once elected, Laurier proposed a compromise stating that Catholics in Manitoba can have a Catholic education if there are enough students to warrant it, on a school-by-school basis.

This is seen by many as the best possible solution in the circumstances, making both the French and English equally satisfied.

Laurier calls his effort to lessen the tinder in this issue "sunny ways", or, in French, voies ensoleillées.