It is a great personal and professional pleasure to send out birthday greetings today to the Hon. Lisa Raitt, who was born on this date in 1968, in Sydney, Nova Scotia.  A proud Cape Bretoner, she was first elected to the House in 2008 and quickly became a mainstay of the cabinets of Prime Minister Stephen J. Harper through 2015. She remained in the House after 2015, serving as Deputy Leader of the opposition Conservatives. Today, she is a respected commentator on public affairs and politics and is an important voice warning of the dangers of the toxic politics that consume so many partisans today. We need more voices like hers calling for a more decent and respectful politics. But perhaps more importantly, for the millions of Canadians, including myself, who have had to face serious mental health issues like depression, she is a beacon in the never-ending war to lift the stigma surrounding these illnesses. As a sitting cabinet minister, she publicly shared the story of her own struggles with depression that took place before she entered politics. Whenever a public person like Ms. Raitt speaks out like she has, we move closer to that era when no Canadian will have to feel shame and stigma during their own journeys with mental illness. Ms. Raitt has also gone public with the story of her husband’s early onset Alzheimer's disease and the challenges she and her family are facing as a result. Again, by doing so she has raised public awareness about an issue that received little attention in years gone by. I know that partisans on all sides will join with Art’s History in sending our birthday greetings to this special voice in our politics today. 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.