Every successful Prime Minister needs a political fixer and in Sir Alexander Campbell Sir John A. Macdonald found his. Campbell, who was himself a Father of Confederation, was born in England on this date in 1822. He would go on to serve as one of Macdonald’s most important political advisors and confidants.
Of further interest is the fact that Campbell, like Oliver Mowat, served as a student lawyer in Macdonald’s Kingston law office in his early days. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography’s entry for Campbell notes how powerful this trio of Kingstonians would become later on. “Macdonald was Conservative prime minister of Canada; Mowat, who in spite of a long-time feud with Macdonald remained a friend of Campbell, was Liberal premier of Ontario; and Campbell was its lieutenant governor.”
To learn more about Campbell you can read his DCB entry in its entirety here...
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.