All eyes in official Ottawa were on the House of Commons on this date in 1983 as the new leader of the national Progressive Conservatives, Brian Mulroney, delivered his maiden address in the chamber. NDP leader Ed Broadbent, along with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, welcomed Mulroney with good-natured partisan salvos that were enjoyed by MPs on all sides of the House. The new Tory leader responded in kind. You can read Mulroney’s address that historic day 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.