Topics

On This Day in Canada’s Political History: Louis St. Laurent is Born (in 1882)

  • Arthur Milnes

  • February 1, 2021

As always at “Art’s History,” today we pause to honour a late Prime Minister on his birthday.  I speak, of course, of the great Louis St. Laurent.  He was born on this day in 1882. For some reason I have never been able to understand, Mr. St. Laurent, despite his significance to Canada, has been ignored for decades by most Canadian historians and politicos.  Serving in Canada’s top job from 1948 until 1957, the 12th Prime Minister’s accomplishments are legion.  To name but a few notable milestones achieved during his tenure:
  • Canada played a key role in the creation of NATO;
  • the first Canadian-born Governor General was appointed;
  • he opened up, for the first time, Canada’s relations with the rising nations of Asia; and
  • the construction of both the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Trans-Canada Highway began.
And, his leadership also saw much more. Luckily for all of us who love Canada and political history, Ryerson Professor Patrice Dutil, has responded to the lack of modern scholarship regarding Mr. St. Laurent.  His book The Unexpected Louis St. Laurent: Politics and Policies for a Modern Canada, published by the University of British Columbia Press (hats off to the good folks there for their continuing belief in the worth of publishing volumes chronicling Prime Ministers, a foreign concept in many university faculty clubs today, but I digress).  The book – which features ground-breaking essays examining all facets of Mr. St. Laurent’s career – is a must read.  Congratulations to Professor Dutil and his colleagues for this long-overdue look at our 12th Prime Minister. So happy birthday to Uncle Louis and let’s hope this renewed interest in this great Prime Minster continues. caption id="attachment_537327" align="alignnone" width="383"Louis St. Laurent Louis St. Laurent/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.


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.