Canada’s future prime minister, joined by a future mayor of Pembroke, Ontario, were victors in a Maritime student debating contest on this date in 1959. So convincing was their success that it even earned coverage in the popular media.
Brian Mulroney and Terry McCann, whose nicknames were “Bones,” for the boy from Baie Comeau, and “Ace” for the future Ottawa Valley leader, were both attending St. FX University at the time. They defeated the team from the University of New Brunswick while participating in another debating tournament as their school year continued.
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.