As always on “Art’s History” we take time out to honour the birthdays of all our Prime Ministers. Today it is Stephen J. Harper’s turn. Born on this date in 1959, Canada's 22nd prime minister grew up in the Toronto area – where he began his continuing love affair with the Toronto Maple Leafs – before heading to Alberta.  First elected to Parliament in 1993, as a Reform Party MP, Harper served one term in the House of Commons before leaving to spend four years as president of the National Citizens' Coalition. In 2002, he returned to active politics to lead the Canadian Alliance, a successor to the Reform Party.  In March 2004, he won the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, which was created following a merger of the Canadian Alliance and the former Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. just three months later, in June 2004, Stephen Harper's CPC lost a close election to Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberals.  However, less than two years later Mr. Harper prevailed, coming out on top in the first of three consecutive election victories for the Conservatives (2006, 2008, 2011).  He served almost a decade as PM. I had the very high honour of serving as a member of Prime Minister Harper’s speechwriting team and had the privilege of getting to know this remarkable man – and his entire family.  Passionate about Canada’s history and confident in our nation’s future, Mr. Harper is Canada’s sixth longest-serving Prime Minister. So, it is a particular pleasure for me to send out birthday greetings to a man and Prime Minister to whom I owe a great deal.  Happy birthday Stephen Harper! caption id="attachment_535554" align="aligncenter" width="500" Stephen Harper 2006 (screengrab)/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.