Our greatest Prime Minister (along with Sir John A. Macdonald) took office as Prime Minister on this date in 1896. Wilfrid Laurier would then hold office for 15 years and further cement Canada as a distinct nation on the northern half of the continent. His years in office were marked by national confidence and the continuing building of a Canada that stretch from sea-to-shining-sea.“The 19th century has been the century of United States’ development,” Laurier famously said as Prime Minister. “Let me tell you, my fellow countrymen, that all the signs point this way, that the 20th century shall be the century of Canada and of Canadian development. For the next 70 years, nay for the next 100 years, Canada shall be the star towards which all men who love progress and freedom shall come."caption id="attachment_1361" align="alignnone" width="583" Sir Wilfrid Laurier, circa 1906./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.