On this date in 1960 Canada lost one of its greatest ever Parliamentarians, with the death, at 86, of former Prime Minister Arthur Meighen. Twice Prime Minister of Canada, Meighen also served as Leader of the Opposition, was Government Leader in the Senate and a crucial cabinet minister in Sir Robert Borden’s war-time cabinets. Not long before his death he was honoured, in Toronto, by a private audience with Her Majesty the Queen because, at the time, he was her senior living Canadian Privy Councillor. It was an audience Meighen had earned during a lifetime of public service. Canada lost another legend on this date in 1991 with the passing of the Right Honourable Roland Michener, a past Governor General and Speaker of the House of Commons. Birthday alerts: Sending out birthday greetings to Paul Hellyer, the last living member of Louis St. Laurent’s cabinet, and to MP Hedy Fry. caption id="attachment_576497" align="aligncenter" width="644" Arthur Meighen's gravestone/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. caption id="attachment_576501" align="aligncenter" width="208" Portrait of Governor General Roland Michener/caption