Edward, the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII), his brother Prince George, and UK Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin arrived at Quebec City on this date in 1927 to begin a historic stay in Canada. The visit came as Canada was marking the 60th anniversary of Confederation.
During the group’s lengthy trip they participated in a wide variety of events that included the dedication of Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s commanding statue that still stands proudly near East Block on Parliament Hill. Prime Minister Baldwin also paid tribute to our first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, laying a wreath at the Father of Confederation’s statue in Kingston. The group also participated in the official opening ceremonies for the bridge linking Canada and the United States at Buffalo. Mackenzie King’s later diary revealed that the UK PM’s wife participated in a spiritual reading while visiting King at Laurier House during her husband’s Canadian tour.
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.