Sir John A. Macdonald of Kingston and his Tories were enjoying their fourth national election victory since 1867 on this date in 1882. Voter turnout was 70 percent as Macdonald and his party won 134 of the 211 seats up for grabs. Liberal leader Edward Blake and his team came first in 63 seats, consigned to the Opposition benches yet again. Canadians would give Macdonald two more general election victories before the Father of Confederation, still in office as Prime Minister, passed into history in 1891.
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.