It was on this date in 1963 that John Diefenbaker’s mighty fall from the Prime Minister’s Office truly begin.  Scant months after he and his government were reduced to a minority in the June 1962 election, they were defeated on a non-confidence motion on the floor of the House of Commons.  For the second time in eight months Canadians were off to the polls. In the weeks and months leading up to the Commons’ vote, Diefenbaker’s government began to disintegrate because of their Prime Minister’s inability to make a decision on whether U.S. nuclear weapons would be stored on Canadian soil.  Most importantly, 24 hours before the non-confidence motion would be tested, Minister of National Defence Doug Harkness put principle before power and resigned in protest of Dief’s indecision. While most expected Lester Pearson and his Liberals would win a majority, Diefenbaker, one of Canada’s greatest-ever campaigners, held them to a minority after the votes were counted on April 8.  Mr. Pearson became Prime Minister a few days later.  Mr. Diefenbaker would never return to the Prime Minister’s Office. caption id="attachment_538455" align="alignnone" width="480" John Diefenbaker/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.