Veteran Newfoundland MP James McGath, who also served as his province’s Lt. Governor, passed into history on this date in 2017. A Progressive Conservative, he was first elected to the Commons in 1957 and served there until his defeat in 1963.
In 1968, he returned to the House and would serve another 18 years that included a stint (from 1979 to early 1980) as Prime Minister Joe Clark’s Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. While he was left out of cabinet when the PCs under Brian Mulroney returned to power in 1984, McGrath still made his mark on federal politics, particularly as chair of Special Committee on the Reform of the House of Commons. Most importantly, McGrath’s committee recommended that the Commons Speaker be elected by MPs using a secret ballot. This reform was accepted and remains in place today.
In 1986, Prime Minister Mulroney recommended McGath’s appointment as the representative of Her Majesty the Queen in Newfoundland and he served as LG until 1991.
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.