Canada’s first-ever female cabinet minister, Ellen Fairclough, was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada on this day in 1995. She had earlier been named an Officer of the Order. In 1992, as part of Canada 125 celebrations, Fairclough had also been granted the honorific "Right Honourable.”
Her Companion of the Order of Canada citation is below.
“Widely respected and admired, she was Canada's first woman cabinet minister and has continued to be a role model and spokesperson, encouraging all people to become involved in public life. In recent years, her enduring commitment to the good of the nation and to the welfare of its citizens has been expressed in a variety of ways, particularly in the social, business, and health care communities. This is a promotion within the Order.”
This pioneering Canadian passed into history in 2004.
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.