Few Canadians today are aware of MP Fred Rose, who died on this date in 1983 in personal and political exile from Canada. Sent to the Commons by Montreal voters (Cartier riding) in 1943 and 1945, Rose was the first – and so far, only – Communist to be elected to the Commons.  Shockingly, because of revelations made by Igor Gouzenko when he defected in September of 1945 from the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, Rose was arrested, tried and convicted of spying for the Soviet Union while a Member of Parliament.  He was alleged to have led a spy ring gathering information on the Manhattan Project's atomic weapon research. After serving four and half years in St. Vincent de Paul penitentiary, Rose was released due to poor health.  He could not find work in Montreal and returned to his native Poland.  Rose died in Warsaw in 1983, having never returned to Canada.  In 1957 his Canadian citizenship was revoked. Interestingly, during his time as a Labour-Progressive MP, Fred Rose proposed medicare legislation and anti-hate legislation. caption id="attachment_544810" align="aligncenter" width="334" Election Poster used by incumbent MP Fred Rose in the 1945 election/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.