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On This Day in Canada’s Political History: PM Diefenbaker meets with Sir Winston Churchill

  • Arthur Milnes

  • May 12, 2021

On this date in 1960 we can be very confident that Prime Minister John Diefenbaker was having a good day. Why you ask? Because it was on May 12, 1960, that Mr. Diefenbaker enjoyed a private luncheon, in London, with one of his heroes, the great Sir Winston Churchill.  Dief treasured the private encounters he had with Britain’s remarkable wartime leader. During his lengthy career in British politics, Churchill came to know many of our Prime Ministers dating back to Sir Robert Borden.  On one occasion, at lunch with Churchill, he offered Diefenbaker aome Napoleon brandy.  Dief recounted in his memoirs:

“He said, will you have shome?” I replied: ‘I’m a teetotaler.’ “He couldn’t understand what that meant. He checked his ear-piece and had me repeat it. I explained that I did not drink hard liquor. He asked: ‘Are you a prohibitionist?’ “I said: ‘No, I have never been a prohibitionist.’ “He considered this for a moment, and then remarked: ‘Ah, I see, you only hurt yourself.’”

caption id="attachment_558215" align="aligncenter" width="479" PM John Diefenbaker and Sir Winston Churchill, 1960/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.

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.