The Hon. James Edgar, the first Speaker of the House of Commons of the Laurier-era, passed into history on this date in 1899 while still holding his high office. First elected to the Commons as a Liberal representing an Ontario riding in 1872, Edgar was defeated two years-later. He made a comeback in 1884 and returned to the House after a by-election victory. When the Liberals formed government in 1896 under Laurier, Edgar was named Speaker. By then, however, his health was already fading and he had been Speaker only two years before his death.
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.