Opposition leader Wilfrid Laurier was in Montreal on this date in 1884. He was there to deliver an address that included his descriptions of those Parliamentarians he admired most. One of them, of course, was none other than Sir John A. Macdonald of Kingston.
“He hesitates, stammers and repeats himself … but, in all his speeches, there is always a nail that goes straight home,” Laurier said of his rival’s skill during debate. “He excels in seizing upon an adversary's weak point. His highest art, however, consists in saying exactly what should be said to produce the most effect on his own supporters. He knows all their weaknesses and their prejudices and all he says is perfectly adapted to them.”
Despite their political differences, Canada’s two greatest Prime Ministers always treated the other with courtesy and respect. Imagine if this was the norm, not the exception, on Parliament Hill today.
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.