December 28, 1857, John A.’s first wife Isabella dies at Kingston. For decades Canadians, for the most part, have taken a light-heartened approach to our first and greatest Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald’s, drinking.  Despite this, I still think it is important for Canadians to recall the punishing personal life Macdonald experienced.  And today is an example of that. Sadly, it was on this date in 1857, that Sir John A.’s first wife, Isabella, died.  She had been sickly for most of their marriage and previously, the couple had lost a child at 13 months, Macdonald’s namesake, John Alexander Macdonald.  The couple were shattered. And after Isabella died, Sir John A.’s drinking increased, as did his devotion to politics.  This meant that the couple’s surviving son, Hugh Macdonald, who went on to become Premier of Manitoba, was raised by his aunt and uncle in Kingston as Sir John was away all the time due to his political duties. So, let’s all remember both Isabella and Sir John A. Macdonald on this sad day.  A reminder, again, of the personal challenges the Father of Confederation faced on the road to creating and then cementing a great nation. December 28, 1886: Sir Oliver Mowat wins his fifth straight Ontario election! With Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford in majority office, and with their own party reduced to a rump of seats at Queen’s Park, Ontario Liberals have not had much to celebrate in recent years.  So, to cheer them up I’m proud to remind these Grits that it was on this day in 1886 that their party’s Ontario Godfather, Sir Oliver Mowat, won his fifth straight election victory! Mowat served Ontarians as Premier for almost 25 years, a record that is likely never to be topped by a leader of any Ontario party in the years ahead. In 2016, during Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s 175^th birthday year, my friend, then Premier Kathleen Wynne and I, jointly led a Laurier themed walking tour of the Queen’s Park grounds for students.  And, of course, we stopped to pay tribute to Mowat, perhaps Ontario’s greatest ever Premier, at the end of our walk. So happy anniversary to Sir Oliver Mowat! caption id="attachment_529306" align="alignleft" width="441" Isabella Macdonald/caption Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist.  He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also proudly served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy.  A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.