Canada lost a political legend on this date in 2013 with the death of the past Minister of Agriculture, Eugene Whelan. First elected to the Commons under Lester Pearson’s leadership in 1962, he would remain a MP until 1984, serving alongside powerhouse Windsor, Ontario MPs like Paul Martin Sr. and Herb Gray.
In 1972 Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau brought Whelan into cabinet as Minister of Agriculture. He remained in that post until Trudeau retired from politics in 1984. He was famous for wearing his green Stetson and for his advocacy on behalf of Canadian farmers. Whelan also formed an unlikely friendship with his Soviet counterpart, Mikhail Gorbachev, and escorted the future leader of the USSR on the latter’s visit to Canada in 1983.
Truly larger than life, and popular amongst partisans of all political stripes, Whelan was summoned to the Senate on the advice of his old friend, Jean Chrétien in 1996. He was 88 when he passed into history on February 19, 2013.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.