1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Foster, George Eulas

FOSTER, GEORGE EULAS (1847–  ), Canadian politician and financier, was born in New Brunswick on the 3rd of September 1847, of U.E. Loyalist descent. After a brilliant university career at the university of Brunswick, at Edinburgh and Heidelberg, he returned to Canada and taught in various local schools, eventually becoming professor of classics and history in the local university. In 1882 he became Conservative member for King’s County, N.B., in the Dominion parliament, and in 1885 entered the cabinet of Sir John Macdonald as minister of marine and fisheries; in 1888 he became minister of finance, which position he held till the defeat of his party in 1896. A careful and even brilliant financier, and a keen debater, he became known as a strong believer in protection for Canadian industries and in preferential trade within the British empire.