Budding politicians from Manitoba and northwestern Ontario gathered at the Manitoba Legislature on this date in 1968 to participate in that year’s Tuxus and Older Boys Parliament. In the hot seat as Premier was none other than my friend and mentor Tom Axworthy, who would, of course, go on to serve as Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
Here’s how the Brandon Sun previewed the gathering in its pages a few days before the students heard the Speech from the Throne.
“The 47th session of the Tuxis and Older Boys Parliament of Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario will be held in the Legislative Building, Winnipeg, Dec. 26 to 30. The lieutenant-governor of the session will be Magistrate Isaac Rice of the city of Winnipeg. The premier will be Tom Axworthy; the deputy, premier, Phil Reece; the speaker, Hugh Stevens; and the deputy speaker, Bob Williamson. Members will discuss the theme ‘The Church and Social Action’ as related to the fields of (the Indigenous), inner city, and alcohol.’”
The following year, Tom donned the robes and served as Speaker for the annual gathering’s sessions.
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.