It was on this date last summer that Canada lost a legendary journalist-historian with the passing of Richard Gwyn. Born in the UK, Richard came to Canada and quickly found himself a job working on Parliament Hill during the Pearson-Trudeau years. He then moved into journalism and it wasn’t long before Richard became one of the most respected columnists covering the Hill, doing so for the Toronto Star. As his career developed, he also penned ground-breaking biographies of Prime Ministers Pierre Trudeau and the nation’s founding PM, Sir John A. Macdonald. A man and writer of grace, class and skill, our nation lost a giant -- and I lost an important mentor and friend -- with his death last year. Birthday alert: Sending birthday greetings out to Senator Mohamed-Iqbal Ravalia. caption id="attachment_577403" align="alignleft" width="186" Richard Gwyn/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.