As you know, nothing takes precedence in “Art’s History” over Prime Ministerial birthdays!  So, happy birthday today to Canada’s first Liberal Prime Minister, Alexander Mackenzie.  He entered the world on this day in 1822. (This means next year will be the bicentennial of this great Canadian’s birth.  Is anyone out there planning a celebration? Just a question.  But I digress). I have long admired Mr. Mackenzie, one of the most honest men to have ever served in Canada’s top job.  One of the lesser-known facts about our second Prime Minister is the fact he shares something very important with our first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald. Not only were both men immigrants to what would become Canada, they both arrived from across the sea in Kingston.  Mackenzie, in fact, was a stone mason who even worked on some of the fortifications still standing here in the Limestone City. 'Sandy' Mackenzie also penned a biography of his hero, George Brown, with his Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown appearing after Mackenzie left office.  And in a unique twist today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau now occupies the West Block Office used by Mackenzie between 1873 and 1878.  Up until Mr. Trudeau today – due to the renovations of Centre Block – Mackenzie had been the only Prime Minister to set up shop at West Block. Again, happy birthday to our second Prime Minister! caption id="attachment_536608" align="alignnone" width="308" Alexander Mackenzie/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.