Sir George Eulas Foster

Sir George Eulas Foster (born Sept. 3, 1847, Carleton county, N.B., Can.—died Dec. 30, 1931, Ottawa) was a Canadian statesman who became prominent as minister of trade and commerce in the government of Sir Robert Laird Borden (1911–20), which gained increasing recognition for Canada in international affairs. Foster founded the National Research Council in Canada and established the Dominion Bureau of Statistics.

Foster entered politics after six years of teaching at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton. In 1882 he was elected a Conservative member of the House of Commons. In the Sir John Macdonald government he became minister of marine and fisheries (1885) and minister of finance (1888–96). After World War I he served as a delegate to the peace conference and as chairman of the Canadian delegation to the first assembly of the League of Nations at Geneva. Foster became known as a strong believer in protection for Canadian industries and in preferential trade within the British Empire. He was knighted in 1914.