Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt (1817-1893) was a Canadian politician responsible for the financial provisions of Canadian federation as well as for some of Canada's first steps in diplomacy.

Alexander Galt was born in Chelsea, London, on Sept. 6, 1817, the youngest son of John Galt, the Scottish novelist. His father was the agent for a Canadian land company, and young Galt himself went to Canada in 1835 as a clerk in the British American Land Company, which owned half a million acres of land in the Eastern Townships, between the St. Lawrence River and the United States border. He rose to become secretary and later commissioner of the company. Through this work he became interested in railway promotion, first in the region owned by the company and, later, with the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway, in the St. Lawrence Basin.

Galt entered politics in 1849, representing Sherbrooke County, in the center...