The man who had presided over one of the most important debates ever held in the Commons during the modern-era passed into history on this date in 1999. Alan Macnaughton, who was Speaker of the House during the raucous flag debate in the 1960s, was 95.
He had been elected a Quebec MP in 1949 and went on to serve as Speaker between 1963 and 1966. He chose not to run again when Canadians went to the polls in late 1965. A few months later Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau recommended his appointment to the Senate and served there until 1978.
Outside of politics, Macnaughton is best known for his work founding the World Wildlife Fund Canada.
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.