No Canadian Prime Minister knew the world of journalism better than Sir Mackenzie Bowell. He started work at the Belleville Intelligencer as a boy, and then rose over the decades to serve as the paper’s owner and chief editorialist. His was a fearless pen in the hurly-burly world of 19th century politics, commentary and journalism.
On this date in 1882 Bowell penned a letter to reporter H.C. Kennedy offering his advice about how a journalist can improve his newspapering craft. “During a long experience,” Bowell wrote, “I have learned that to be successful in conducting a journal, politically independent or neutral, the only way is to have an opinion, express it freely and tell grumblers to go the devil and shake themselves and then go on in my own way as usual.”
Wise words.
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.