History was made in Manitoba on this date in 1878 with the swearing-in of John Norquay as Premier. Of Métis heritage, he was a Conservative who entered the Manitoba Legislature by acclamation after the province’s first-ever provincial election after joining Confederation in 1870. He was named to the provincial cabinet in 1871 and was Premier seven-years later. Premier Norquay would hold Manitoba’s top political job until his resignation in the midst of a scandal in 1887. He passed into history in 1889 at the young age of 48.
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.