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Today in Canada’s Political History: Sir Robert Borden starts writing his Memoirs

  • Arthur Milnes

  • October 15, 2022

It was a big day for Canadian historiography on this date in 1928 as Canada’s First World War Prime Minister, the great Sir Robert Borden, started to write his Memoirs. In doing so, he became only the second Prime Minister – after Sir Charles Tupper – to pen memoirs upon leaving office. In the decades that were to follow Borden, only Mackenzie King, R.B. Bennett, Louis St. Laurent, John Turner, Joe Clark and (though stay-tuned) Stephen Harper have not written post-politics memoirs.

But I digress. Back to the Borden Memoirs.

Canadians to this very day owe Borden a great deal thanks to his waiting almost 20 years – they were not published until 1938 – to get his book out. This allowed partisan passions to cool for both the wider public and for Sir Robert himself. As a result, his are amongst the best books ever produced by a past Prime Minister.

Here’s how Borden started his book.

“During the past eight years since I retired from the Premiership of Canada in July, 1920,” he wrote. “many friends have urged me to give an account of my activities in public life. Some preparation has been made from time to time in the arrangement of very voluminous files, but many labours which I have undertaken in the meantime have hitherto prevented me from giving attention to this task. On this fifteenth day of October 1928, I am making a commencement.”

Thank you, Sir Robert, for leaving this excellent account of your life and times to history. caption id="attachment_538649" align="alignleft" width="350"Robert Borden Sir Robert Borden/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.

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.