It is a big day for Manitoba on the birthday front.Both former Governor General Ed Schreyer, who served as Manitoba's Premier from 1969-77 before moving to Rideau Hall, and Lloyd Axworthy, a major player in the cabinets of both Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Jean Chretien, will be celebrating their birthdays today.While still a political youngster, Mr. Axworthy even had the courage to go up against the great Stanley Knowles in the 1968 election. (No surprise but the 27 year-old Axworthy lost to the legend.)  Later, Mr. Axworthy served in the Manitoba Legislature for six years before heading into federal politics in 1979. Today, he is perhaps best known for his work pioneering the anti-land mine treaty that has been signed by more than 160 nations.As for Mr. Schreyer, he was only 33 when elected Premier as the head of an NDP government.  Appointed at 43 to the position of Governor General, he later served from 1984-88 as Canada's High Commissioner to Australia. Afterwards, he became a university lecturer and has had long worked with Habitat for Humanity Canada.Happy birthday from Art's History to these two great Manitobans and proud Canadians.caption id="attachment_418196" align="alignleft" width="295" Lloyd Axworthy. (Photograph by Thomas Fricke)/captioncaption id="attachment_600523" align="alignleft" width="248" Portrait of former Governor General Ed Schreyer/captionArthur 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.