The late-great federal Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty, took to his feet in the Commons on this date in 2007 and delivered his second budget address. Flaherty told the Commons that Canada was the only G7 country with “with both ongoing budget surpluses and a falling debt burden.” Another highlight was the announcement that $1.5 billion was being allocated to the fight against climate change.
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.