Every Prime Minister needs a crafty backroom man (or woman), an election strategist and/or director that takes them to power and (hopefully!) keeps them there for a long time after.  So today we mark the birth of Sir Alexander Campbell, Canada’s first political “fixer,” who ably performed these important tasks for his fellow Kingstonian, Sir John A. Macdonald. Campbell, born in 1822, had articled with Macdonald in the Limestone City and later was the Father of Confederation’s law partner.  In the political realm, Campbell became a Father of Confederation in his own right, a cabinet minister under Sir John A., Senator and was eventually appointed, by his political master and partner, to the post of Lt.-Governor of Ontario.  Fittingly, Campbell’s grave in Kingston is located very close to Sir John A.’s. caption id="attachment_543421" align="aligncenter" width="160" Sir Alexander Campbell/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.