John Diefenbaker’s lifelong dream to become Prime Minister was closer to becoming a reality on this date in 1956 with his election as the federal leader of Canada’s Tories. Less than a year later Dief proved his many critics wrong and became PM with his surprise defeat of Louis St.-Laurent and his Liberals. The Prairie firebrand would hold Canada’s top political job from 1957 until 1963.
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.