Canada’s greatest Prime Minister (equaled only by Sir John A. Macdonald of Kingston) officially took office on this date in 1896, having defeated the Tories under Sir Charles Tupper only weeks before. Wilfrid Laurier would then go on to serve 15 years as PM. The first French-Canadian to hold Canada’s highest elected office, Laurier, who was later Knighted by Queen Victoria, would earn four majority mandates from Canadians. He guided our nation through a period of national confidence, expansion and increased autonomy within the British Empire. After his defeat at the hands of Robert Borden in 1911, Sir Wilfrid remained in politics, leading his Liberal party until he died, still with his political boots on, in 1919.
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.