Canadian Communist leader Tim Buck passed into history on this date in 1973. He was 82.
Buck led the party during difficult times, and was even imprisoned for his political beliefs during the Great Depression. While at Kingston Penitentiary he was the subject of an assassination attempt with eight gunshots fired into his cell. Miraculously, he survived and continued his political work upon his release.
Buck was General Secretary of the Canadian Communist party for more than 30 years and failed five times in his quest for a seat in the House of Commons.
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.