It is a great pleasure to send out birthday greetings to our friends and neighbours south of the Canada-U.S. border as they commemorate their Declaration of Independence. My late father always told me that one of the greatest privileges that came with Canadian citizenship was living next door to such a dynamic and friendly people.  And, never once in my own 55 years have I felt any different than my dad. Sir Winston Churchill, in my view, has left history the best description of the Canadian-American relationship there is: “Canada clasps the American hand with her faith and goodwill,” he said  in 1939. “That long frontier from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans, guarded only by neighbourly respect and honourable obligations, is an example to every country and a pattern for the future of the world.” So, happy Independence Day from Canada to all Americans. caption id="attachment_570941" align="aligncenter" width="463" Declaration of Independence/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.