The voice of a man who would go on to become one of the greatest House of Commons men in Canadian history was first heard in the House of Commons on this date in 1940. John Diefenbaker, who would go on to win the leadership of the Progressive Conservative party and surprise all his critics by becoming PM in 1957, would serve a commanding 39 years as a MP before passing into history in August of 1979.
You can read Dief’s maiden House address at this link.
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.