Today, of course, is my wife’s birthday.  While that is important enough, Alison and I also recall March 23 as the day in 2014 that Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whom I served as a speechwriter, came by our Kingston house to perform a ceremonial tree planting in our now famous garden – as six other Prime Ministers and a US President and First Lady (Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter) had before him.  To say that it was a very unique birthday that year for Alison is an understatement. At this point we are still waiting for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to follow the lead of his predecessors and perform his own tree-planting.  He has assured me that he will do so and we’re waiting with his tree’s spot in our backyard all ready.  Over to you Prime Minister Trudeau … caption id="attachment_544817" align="aligncenter" width="440" PM Stephen Harper plants a tree in the Milnes' yard/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.