My wife and I hosted a distinguished visitor to our home on this date in 2012. Canada’s 20th Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Jean Chrétien dropped by to plant a ceremonial tree on our property. In doing so, he became the fourth PM to serve as a tree-planter for us. Mr. Chrétien was generous with his time, taking time out to speak to a pair of students we had arranged to have on hand during his visit. Today, our Prime Ministerial Garden features trees planted by seven of Canada’s Prime Ministers and we still await visits by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Prime Minister Mark Carney in order to perform their duties here in Kingston.
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.