Birthday greetings today to former New Brunswick Premier Frank McKenna, who is turning 73.  One of the most remarkable politicians of his era, Mr McKenna and his party famously won every single seat in the New Brunswick Legislature in the 1987 campaign.The backstory on Frank McKenna is quite interesting.  After earning a BA in Political Science and Economics at St. Francis Xavier University -- where he had been student union president -- he began graduate studies at Queen's University in the great city of Kingston, Ontario.  But, that plan was interrupted after he spent a summer working in the office of Liberal cabinet minister (and icon) Allan MacEachen.  Instead of continuing at Queen's, McKenna opted to heed MacEachen’s advice to get a law degree.  After graduating with his law degree from the University of New Brunswick, he practiced law 180 km up the road, in Chatham.  He later gained some prominence as the defence lawyer in the high-profile 1977 murder case of local legend Yvon Durelle, the once world-ranked boxing champion nicknamed the ‘Fighting Fisherman’.  McKenna successfully defended Durelle, who was acquitted on the grounds of self-defence in the widely publicized case.In the 80s, in a span of just five years, McKenna won a seat in the New Brunswick’s Legislative Assembly (1982), became leader of the provincial Liberals (1985), and won led his party to one of the largest electoral victories in Canadian history in the 1987 election sweeping every seat in the province.He went on to lead New Brunswick for a decade before stepping down.  But, even then, his public service wasn’t over.In early 2005 then PM Paul Martin appointed Mr. McKenna as Canada’s Ambassador to the United States.  McKenna served as our representative in Washington for one-year, stepping aside when the Martin government was defeated by Stephen Harper at the 2006 election.  Since then, Mr. McKenna has become a leading figure in Canadian business circles, particular at TD Bank.Happy birthday, Frank McKenna.[caption id="attachment_123530" align="aligncenter" width="336"] Frank McKenna[/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 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.