One of Canada’s greatest heroes passed into history on this date in 1858, Robert Baldwin, along with his political partner Sir Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine, are rightly credited before history as the two political leaders who first brought responsible government to what is now Ontario and Quebec. Along the way to this self-government milestone, Baldwin an La Fontaine bridged the linguistic, cultural and religious divide in the colony. Sadly, both men, along with their important legacies they bequeathed today’s Canadians, are relatively unknown today.
You can read more about Baldwin at his Dictionary of Canadian Biography entry at this link: https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/baldwin_robert_8E.html#:~:text=BALDWIN%2C%20ROBERT%2C%20lawyer%20and%20politician,sons%20and%20two%20daughters%3B%20d.
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.