An active and articulate campaigner in late Victorian England, he was associated with many of the leading Imperialists seeking change.

Albert Grey was born into a noble and political family, though at birth not in direct line to inherit the earldom.

"[2] In 1878, Albert Grey entered into politics as a member of the Liberal Party and, after relinquishing a tied vote to his opponent, eventually won a place in the British House of Commons in 1880.

[3] Grey was appointed as Governor General of Canada by King Edward VII in 1904, on the recommendation of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Arthur Balfour, to replace the Earl of Minto as viceroy and occupied that post until succeeded by Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, in 1911.

Grey was the younger and only surviving son of General Sir Charles Grey—a younger son of former British prime minister the second Earl Grey and later the private secretary to Prince Albert and later still to Queen Victoria—and his wife, Caroline Eliza Farquhar, eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Harvie Farquhar, Bt.

The possession of a vote by women who are heads of households will lead to the formation of associations and unions for the protection and advancement of the interests of their sex.

[8] He organized a model STV election in Northumberland in 1885, remarkably using untrained coal miners as staff to conduct it successfully.

[4] Two years later, Grey was also appointed as Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland and published a brief biography of a young relative,[11] Hubert Hervey, who was killed in the Second Matabele War.

During the time Grey occupied the viceregal office (1904-1911) Canada experienced large-scale immigration, industrialisation, and economic development, and secured increased independence from the United Kingdom.

[4] It was with Grey's granting of Royal Assent to the appropriate Acts of Parliament that Alberta and Saskatchewan were separated from the North-West Territories to become provinces,[14] The Governor General, writing to the King at the time, stated "[each one] a new leaf in Your Majesty's Maple Crown.

He journeyed abroad to the Dominion of Newfoundland (then not yet a part of Canada) and several times to the United States to visit President Theodore Roosevelt, with whom Grey developed a strong bond.

Grey suggested the construction of a railway hotel in the federal capital - the outcome was the palatial Château Laurier, completed in 1912.

Grey's years of urging Laurier to get the Cabinet and Parliament to agree to the idea of a Canadian navy were more fruitful.

The government arranged for the attendance of the Prince of Wales (later King George V), American and French warships, and a host of visiting dignitaries.

At other times, and unlike future viceroys, the Governor General's influence expanded blatantly into government policy.

He was invited to visit the province of British Columbia but declined as protest against the exclusionary measures implemented by the BC government under premier Richard McBride.

However, following the Japanese victory in the Russo-Japanese War, he expressed concerned about the so-called Yellow Peril and worked with the federal Cabinet to explore restrictions on Asian immigration other than the head tax.

He gave to the Crown a horse-drawn carriage he had purchased from the Governor-General of Australia, which is still today used as the state landau,[19] and added a study and conservatory to Rideau Hall, the sovereign's and governor general's Ottawa residence; the latter was torn down in 1924.