The pride of Shawinigan, Quebec, Jean Chrétien, was sworn-in as Canada’s 20th Prime Minister at Rideau Hall on this date in 1993. Elected Liberal leader three-years before, Chrétien earned a convincing majority mandate on October 25, 1993, and Parliament would open with 177 Liberal MPs filling the chamber. The Chrétien years had begun. The 20th Prime Minister would go on to win two further general elections, one in 1997 and one in 2000, and govern Canada for a decade. You can watch the CPSAN video of the new PM’s swearing-in 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.