Today is the birthday of one of the truly great legends of from the world of Canadian politics in recent decades. I speak, of course, of John Crosbie of Newfoundland. Minister of Finance under Prime Minister Joe Clark, a candidate for the PC leadership in 1983, and one of Brian Mulroney’s strongest and most independent cabinet ministers, it is likely we won’t see a politician like him anytime soon again. For me, I recall like yesterday watching Question Period with my highs school best friend, Tom Harrison, back home in Scarborough and marvelling at Mr. Crosbie’s performances in the House of Commons. Seeing him and then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau going head-to-head during Question Period was something we hoped for each time Tom and I tuned into what we saw as the best show in Canada. Mr. Crosbie described one of his best exchanges with Mr. Trudeau is his wonderful memoir, No Holds Barred. I’ll let the late, great Newfoundlander tell his own story. “On one occasion,” he recalled, “I was questioning Trudeau about a conflict of interest involving one of his ministers, suggesting there was a conspiracy of sleaze in his government. When Ed Broadbent, the leader of the New Democratic Party, followed with another question, Trudeau replied that there was a time-honoured test for these issues: ‘Quad semper, quad ubique, quad a ab omnibus.’ This roughly translates from the Latin as ‘What has been accepted by everyone, everywhere, everytime.’ I shouted that this was the ‘Jesuit coming out’ in Trudeau. He responded that he knew his observation had been beyond the grasp of the honourable member from St. John’s West. “So, I lapsed into Latin, too,” Mr. Crosbie’s account continues, ‘Res ispa loquitur,’ which as every lawyer knows, means, ‘The thing speaks for itself.’ Opposition MPs gave me a hearty cheer for my quick thinking. ‘Now I will turn to Greek,’ Trudeau said, not to be undone. ‘Ta zoa etrekhe.’ He added, ‘And that applies to him,’ meaning me. Trudeau’s Greek translated as ‘The animals are running.,’ referring to the Opposition. The only Greek I knew was the school motto of my old school, St. Andrew’s College, in Aurora, Ontario. So, I replied, ‘Andrezesthe krateousthe,’ which translated as ‘Could ye like men be strong,’” “There was considerable consternation in the Commons and applause on both sides. I was lucky that these Latin and Greek phrases, the only ones I knew, were appropriate for the occasion. ‘Insults in Greek and Latin Pepper House Conflict Row,’ headline the Toronto Globe and Mail.” And this describes only one small part of the life and legend that was John C. Crosbie. caption id="attachment_536888" align="alignnone" width="650" A/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.