Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden was in the U.K. on this date in 1917 where he took possession on behalf of the Parliament of Canada of a new mace for the House of Commons. The original mace had been destroyed in the great Parliamentary fire a few months previously, in 1916.
The parliamentary website gives this description of the all-important mace: “The general design of the mace is very similar to the one used by the British House of Commons. The vase-shaped head is divided into four panels by female figures with acanthus leaf terminals. These panels display the Arms of Canada, the rose of England, the harp of Ireland and the thistle of Scotland. Above each emblem is the Tudor Crown, with the initials "E R" (Elizabeth Regina) placed on either side. In the space above the figures is shown the beaver executed in bold relief. The head of the mace is supported by four ornamental brackets, and is surmounted with the Royal Crown. Inside the circlet of the crown, the Royal Arms of the United Kingdom appear in relief. The staff, divided by gadrooned rings and terminated by a knob, is richly chased with the rose, shamrock, thistle, fleur-de-lis and the maple leaf.”
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.