Lougheed had been a member of the federal
Conservative Party since his days in Toronto, and had campaigned for Sir
John A. Macdonald. Even so, his appointment to the
Senate on 10 December 1889 (replacing
Richard Hardisty, his wife's uncle, who had died In the 1890s Lougheed emerged as the West's strongest voice in the Senate. He was constantly in the position of having to remind members of the Upper Chamber of the realities of life in the western provinces and territories (Alberta at the time being part of the
Northwest Territories). He spoke out fiercely against certain provisions in the act creating the province of Alberta, and declared that it would be better to remain a territory than to have what he called archaic education statutes forced on the province. In 1906, he became
Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. The Conservatives were in opposition for many of Lougheed's early years as a senator. When the Conservatives took power following the
1911 election, he became
Leader of the Government in the Senate and
minister without portfolio in the government of Sir
Robert Borden. He was made Chairman of the Military Hospitals Commission in 1915, and, as a reward for this service, was
knighted by
George V in 1916 (
Order of St Michael and St George), becoming the only Albertan to ever earn the honour. He adhered to a strict interpretation of the
British North America Act, was against women voting, disliked social innovations, and believed Canada's future was as a subordinate nation in the British Empire. Lougheed was also a successful businessman through his real estate, newspapers, and other ventures in Calgary. He was a staunch advocate of provincial status for what became
Alberta and argued that the province rather than the federal government should have control of natural resources. This argument was carried on by his grandson,
Peter Lougheed, when he was
premier of Alberta in the 1970s and 1980s. ==Death==