America’s First Lady, the famed Eleanor Roosevelt, publicly wished Prime Minister Mackenzie King a happy birthday on this date in 1943. The wily Grit PM was turning 69. Mrs. Roosevelt gave her Canadian friend a shoutout in her famed My Day column, a feature that appeared in countless American news papers each day.
“December 17 is the birthday of the Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Honorable William Lyon Mackenzie King,” she wrote. “He is a public servant of long standing and he has given unselfishly of himself for the good of his country. On several occasions Mr. Mackenzie King has been our guest, and I always look forward to his visits, not because of his importance as a public figure, but because he is a delightful person with whom to talk, and his sincerity and high standards of public service are an inspiration.”
She also took time out in the same column to praise Canada itself.
“I often wish that we in this country knew more about the contribution which Canada has made to the war effort,” she wrote. “Her people have expanded their industries and they have trained innumerable men sent from England—as well as those recruited in Canada—to serve in various branches of the armed forces. Canada's population is far smaller than ours. So, some of their problems may be a little easier to handle. But, by and large, they have faced the same difficulties and they have met them with courage and a truly progressive spirit. They are not afraid of new experiments in government, in business or in social concepts. That augurs well for the future.”
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.