The Fighting Father of Confederation, the great Sir Charles Tupper, stepped down as federal Tory leader on this date in 1901. He had briefly served as Prime Minister in 1896 but was defeated by Wilfrid Laurier in that year’s general election. Tupper then remained as Leader of the Opposition and was unsuccessful a second time when leading his party through the 1900 campaign. He was succeeded as leader by his fellow Nova Scotian, the great Robert Borden.
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.