Wilfrid Laurier

Wilfrid Laurier
Actor	Brian Paul
Seen	"Confederate Treasure" "24 Hours Til Doomsday"
Mentioned	The Spy Who Came Up to the Cold "From Murdoch to Eternity"
Gender	Male
Status	Living
Job	Prime Minister of Canada

Sir Wilfrid Laurier was the Prime Minister of Canada from July 11, 1896 to October 6, 1911.

History

Sir Wilfrid Laurier was the first francophone prime minister and considered one of the greatest statesmen in Canada. He did his best to create French-English relations while also promoting Canada's autonomy within the British Empire.

Laurier is the holder of a number of records; he is the fourth-longest serving Prime Minister of Canada, behind William Lyon Mackenzie King, John A. Macdonald, and Pierre Trudeau. Laurier also holds the record for the most consecutive federal elections won (4), and his 15-year tenure remains the longest unbroken term of office among Prime Ministers. In addition, his nearly 45 years (1874–1919) of service in the House of Commons is an all-time record for that house. Finally, at 31 years, 8 months, Laurier was the longest-serving leader of a major Canadian political party, surpassing King by over two years.

Wilfrid Laurier's portrait is displayed on the Canadian five-dollar bill.

Appearances and Mentions

Confederate Treasure

• Sir Laurier comes down to the Station House Four to discuss the details of the case involved the late Mortimer Shanly, the first Minister of Militia Defense, along with Terrence Meyers. After verifying that the letter of authority found on Shanly was signed by Sir John A. Macdonald, the first Prime Minister, Meyers stated they should destroy it. Murdoch tries politely arguing for its evidentiary value, but Meyers says the Americans can't get their hands on the letter or it'll mean the end of Canada. Thomas Brackenreid asks what he's talking about. Laurier decides to disclose to the two lawmen, explaining that during the American Civil War, the Copperheads, a group of Confederate leaning renegades were plotting to establish a second breakaway north republic, which Canada believed would've weakened the United States. Elements of the Canadian government, namely Shanly and the Secretariat of the Treasury, plotted to transfer a million dollars in gold bullion to the Confederates. Shanly lied to Macdonald, fabricating a tale of a fictitious Canadian soldier who died in the St. Albans raid and his body needed to be returned home without upsetting the Americans, a ruse to get the letter of authority to override the transfer protocol for the gold. He then loaded it onto strong boxes and was going to deliver the gold to a Confederate agent in St. Catherines. He is adamant that they find it first, or risk a war with the Americans, reminding how McKinley's administration attacked the Spanish on the slimmest pretext and they shouldn't be given an excuse to wage more war.

• Subsequently, Murdoch showed Laurier and the others a map of Lake Ontario he recovered from the late Bertram Jacobsen's house, which he believed Allen Clegg was searching for. Jacobsen had marked a shaded area in Lake Ontario where he believed the Elvira May, the steamboat said to be carrying the gold, sank, and spent every Sunday fished in that area attempting to snag the Elvira May. Meyers noted that it was in American waters, in which Laurier questioned why the Elvira May was doing in American waters when it was bound for St. Catherines. Brackenreid suggested that maybe Jacobsen got the location wrong and said it's unlikely that the Elvira May would be found in such a large area. However, Murdoch reasons that a convoy of fishing boats would eventually find the steamboat. Laurier sanctioned Murdoch's efforts to construct a sonic device to find the Elvira May.

• Murdoch, along with Meyers, Brackenreid and George Crabtree located the Elvira May and recovered one of the strong boxes, but were subsequently detained by the Americans. To everyone's confusion, the box was filled with nothing with bricks, and thus the Americans were forced to let the Canadians go. Murdoch later figured out that Shanly's assistant, Lawrence Cheevers, attempted to steal the gold, replacing it with boxes filled with bricks and placed a bomb on the Elvira May to cover his tracks. However, beforehand, Shanly, unaware of Cheevers' intended theft, suspected that a Union spy was onto him and thus placed the gold in the coffin of the fictitious soldier and replaced them with lead bars and buried the coffin in Grove Cemetery outside Hamilton. The gold was successfully recovered and return to the treasury, sparing Canada from a devastating war.

• Subsequently, Murdoch figured out that Jacobsen was the Union spy infiltrating the Confederates, who killed Shanly, left his body at the docks and hijacked the Elvira May to head for America to expose the conspiracy; the only other indicator was that Jacobsen was left-handed and Shanly was killed by a lefty. Colonel Grovard, Shanly's Confederate contact, figured out that Jacobsen murdered Shanly and had lied that he died on the Elvira May and his true allegiances and thus challenged him to a duel. Grovard anticipated that Jacobsen would cheat and dodged his cheating shot and killed him. Murdoch was able to get a confession out of him by challenging his honour as a gentleman.

• With two murders solved and war averted, Laurier personally thanked Murdoch and told him that Canada was in his debt, though Meyers added that the people can never know of Murdoch's heroics.

24 Hours Til Doomsday

From Murdoch to Eternity (Mentioned)

Trivia

Laurier's appearance in Confederate Treasure is introduced by Desk Sergeant Armstrong asking who he is, to which George Crabtree replies "it's the prime minister man!" As an in joke, on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation version of the program, Armstrong was played by then current prime minister Stephen Harper. Outside of Canada, the scene is omitted and Armstrong replaced by a background actor.