A high-level group of dignitaries gathered on this date in 1927 to celebrate and advance Canadian-American relations.  Their task that historic day was to officially dedicate and open the Peace Bridge at Buffalo that links Americans and Canadians to this day. To do so, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King assembled a group that was probably the most impressive one ever assembled in one place up until that time in Canada: the visiting Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII); his brother Prince George; the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Stanley Baldwin; and the Vice President of the United States Charles G. Dawes. “We are delighted to have the opportunity of bringing our royal and distinguished visitors to a part of the international frontier which is unparalleled in its scenic beauty,” Prime Minster King said at the ceremony. “It is a source of even greater pleasure to be able to show them a frontier whose history is unique in the annal of the world – an international frontier across which, for over one hundred years, not a single shot has been fired, not a single sword has been drawn, and long the whole of which, a distance of nearly four thousand miles, there is today not a single fort.” In his memoirs, Notes as Vice President, Dawes recalled the ceremonies at the Peace Bridge. “We stopped at Buffalo, New York, for the dedication,” he wrote. “The ceremony took place on the centre of the bridge where the two official groups met. The prince (Edward Prince of Wales) and I shook hands and exchanged informal greetings over a ribbon stretched across the bridge; Mrs. Dawes then cut the ribbon with a pair of gilt scissors. Both parties next rode to a platform on the American side, where an audience estimated at 75,000 was gathered.” And after the events at the border, Vice President Dawes then traveled to his cottage on Manitoulin Island in Ontario. All these years later I firmly believe that the relations between Canada and the United States remain an example to the world. caption id="attachment_576502" align="aligncenter" width="583" U.S. Vice President Charles Dawes and the Prince of Wales at the official opening of the Peace Bridge/caption There are two other important milestones on this date, anniversaries for my Liberal friends, in particular, to celebrate.  It was on this date in 1919 that the great William Lyon Mackenzie King was elected the Liberal Party’s leader at Canada’s first-ever delegated leadership convention. Mr. King would go onto to become Canada's longest serving Prime Minister and lead his party for almost 30 years, a remarkable achievement. A generation later, on August 7, 1948, at another Grit leadership convention, the great Louis St. Laurent replaced Mr. King as leader.  He would go on to continue the Liberal run, holding government by winning two majority mandates from Canadians. In 1957, for the first time in 22 years, Canada’s Tories defeated Mr. St. Laurent’s Liberals to form a government under John Diefenbaker. So special anniversary greetings to all Canadian Liberals today. Birthday alerts: Sending birthday greetings to B.C. Premier John Horgan, MPs Ron McKinnon and Gérard Deltell and to Tim Murphy, who served as Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Paul Martin. 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.