Stonemason and immigrant to North American shores Alexander Mackenzie took over the reigns of the federal Liberal party from Edward Blake on this date in 1873. Little would anyone guessed that in less than a year Sandy Mackenzie would be Prime Minister, replacing the great Macdonald of Kingston, the latter who was forced out of office due to the Pacific Scandal. Considered perhaps the most honest Canadian to have become PM, he would hold high office as the second Prime Minister for almost five years.
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.