R.B. Bennett swore the oath and took office as Canada’s 11th Prime Minister on this date in 1930, shortly after defeating Mackenzie King in that year’s general election. New Brunswick born, Bennett had made his fortune in Alberta and it was there he started his rise through Canadian politics. Elected federal Tory leader in 1927, he had spent the previous three-years preparing his party for power. Bennett had the misfortune to take office just as the Great Depression took hold and he made valiant efforts to combat this world-wide phenomenon. R.B. was defeated in 1935 and then left Canada to make his life in the United Kingdom. Summoned to the House of Lords, he served with great distinction in Britain’s upper house until his death in 1947.
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.