It is a big day at Art's History. Most importantly, of course, we have a Right Honourable birthday to celebrate. Our 22nd Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Stephen J. Harper is turning a youthful 67. He was Prime Minister from 2006 until 2015, and the last Conservative to serve in Canada's highest political office. This year has been a special one for he and his family as Mr. Harper's official portrait was unveiled in February at a wonderful ceremony on Parliament Hill and the sorting of his archival Fonds at Library and Archives Canada is now complete. Perhaps most importantly, his memoirs will be published in the fall. I had the high honour of serving as a speechwriter in the Harper PMO and I will always be in his debt as he allowed me witness Prime Ministerial history in real time. So it is a great personal and professional pleasure to send out birthday greetings to my former boss.
And I can't sign off today without celebrating Harry Truman's Vice President, Alben Barkley, known then and now as The Veep. It was exactly 70 years-ago today that he passed into history while in mid-speech at a Virginia university. The Veep's death on April 30, 1956 remains the greatest political death of modern times. When former President Truman was told of his VP's spectacular death he could only say this: "I hope I go that way." Yes, the Veep died, quite literally, with his political boots on. You can hear Barkley's last words at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvv2zFrybDs
Happy Alben Barkley Day all.
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.