Legendary CCF-NDP leader Tommy Douglas was invested a Companion of the Order of Canada at Rideau Hall on this date in 1981. You can read his citation below.
“When in 1934 a young Baptist minister entered Saskatchewan politics, a trend began which was to place Tommy Douglas at the head of the first social democratic government in Canada. This led to new initiatives in the arts, health, industry, road building, energy, and justice. Later, as federal leader of the New Democratic Party, he continued his strivings in the wider arena. He is now president of the Douglas-Coldwell Foundation, dedicated to the study of government.”
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.