Today, of course, is the birthday of the great Sir Robert Borden, Canada’s leader throughout the First World War. He came to Canada’s highest political office after defeating Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier and his Liberals in 1911 reciprocity campaign. An accomplished lawyer before entering politics, he would lead Canada for nine years, turning over power to Arthur Meighen in the summer of 1920. Like past Prime Ministers Jean Chrétien and Joe Clark in our own era, Borden chose to remain in Ottawa after leaving the Premiership.

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.