What a great day for all Canadians to recall! It was on this date in 1991 that BC’s Rita Johnston made history, becoming the very first female Premier in Canada.  Ms. Johnson had previously held senior cabinet positions in the Social Credit government of Bill Vander Zalm.  When the ever-controversial Vander Zalm resigned, then-Deputy Premier Johnston replaced him as Premier.  (A few months later, she won the party leadership.) She served in beautiful British Columbia’s highest office until November of that year when her Socreds were defeated by Mike Harcourt’s NDP.  While her time as Premier was short, Ms. Johnston paved the way for all Canadian women. Happy anniversary to Rita Johnson and to all Canadian women in politics. caption id="attachment_546972" align="aligncenter" width="201" Former BC Premier Rita Johnston/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.