Many call the decision announced by then-Prime Minister Jean Chrétien on this date in 2003 the greatest moment of his time in office.  Speaking in the House of Commons, the 20^th PM told the country and our allies that Canada would not participate in the invasion of Iraq, as it was proceeding without a UN resolution.“It was a very important decision, no doubt about it. It was, in fact, the first time ever that there was a war that the Brits and the Americans were involved and Canada was not there,” Mr. Chretien said in an interview with CTV to mark the 10^th anniversary of his decision in 2013. “Unfortunately, a lot of people thought sometimes that we were the 51st state of America. It was clear that day that we were not.”“I had to send troops in many places when I was prime minister and it’s always a worry you have because you’re asking young Canadians to go abroad and some will not come back,” he added in the same interview. “This one, I thought the Americans were wrong.”caption id="attachment_94735" align="aligncenter" width="440" Former prime minister Jean Chretien kept Canada out of the Iraq War/captionArthur 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.