No matter the results of last month’s election, Liberals and Conservatives alike can celebrate by looking back on special anniversaries from their history with great pride today. In fact, there are so many important moments that fell on this date I had trouble choosing one. At the end, I decided to mark all of them.First off, it was on this day in 1957 that it was announced that Canada's own Mike Pearson would be that year's winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. He remains the only Canadian ever to have been awarded this prestigious prize. Mr. Pearson, who would go on to become one of Canada’s most significant Prime Ministers, received the medal for his work diffusing the Suez Crisis.And then, working backwards, one of my favourite PMs, R.B. Bennett, was elected federal Tory leader at the famed 1927 leadership convention in Winnipeg. Three years later he would receive a majority mandate from Canadian voters and serve as Prime Minister for five years. (As always, I note in sadness that no statue has been erected to honour this majority Prime Minister on Parliament Hill, a disgrace that needs to be rectified. But I digress).It was also on this date, in 1917 this time, that the great Sir Robert Borden was sworn as PM a second time, this time leading a Union government as the First World War continued.Further back in time, in 1872, Sir John A. Macdonald -- of Kingston -- won the second of his six general election victories in post-Confederation Canada. That year’s election, it is worth noting, was the last held where one had to stand in public and announce how one was casting their ballot.[caption id="attachment_530486" align="alignleft" width="280"]
Lester B. Pearson[/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.
Lester B. Pearson[/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.