Canada’s Progressive Conservatives were gathered in convention on this date in 1948 to choose a new leader. Delegates chose former Ontario Premier George Drew to lead them against Louis St. Laurent and the latter’s mighty Liberal government. Drew went on to head his party through the 1949 and 1953 elections, losing to St. Laurent both times. Despite their political differences, St. Laurent and Drew enjoyed excellent personal relations. After his service as Leader of the Opposition Colonel Drew (as he was known) represented Canada as High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. He passed into history in 1973 at the age of 78.
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.