The late Lester B. Pearson was honoured on this date in 1973 by Queen Elizabeth herself. Her Majesty was in Ottawa and officially opened the Lester B. Pearson Building, the new home of Canada’s External Affairs bureaucracy.
“Lester Pearson's great qualities were that he was considerate, tolerant and fair, and he had an infectious cheerfulness and optimism,” Her Majesty, who knew the late PM well, said. “If the atmosphere of this building can come to reflect those qualities, it could not be a better inspiration for the people who work 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.