Voting ended in our new nation’s first-ever federal election on this date in 1867 (note: voting had commenced on August 7 and voters did not yet have the privilege of using a secret ballot).  For the first of what would become six times, Father of Confederation Sir John A. Macdonald and his Tories earned a majority mandate from Canadians, winning 101 seats to the Liberals' 80. Over the 20 years that followed, Sir John would be returned with majority mandates in 1872, 1878, 1882, 1887 and 1891. It is a record of electoral greatness likely not be repeated in Canada ever again. As today is voting day in another federal election, I want to thank our party leaders – and their families – and all candidates from all parties who have put their names forward in campaign 2021.  No matter the results this evening, by improving our democracy you are all winners already. caption id="attachment_583607" align="alignleft" width="400" Portrait of Sir John A. MacDonald/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.