It was on this date in 1990 that the great Nelson Mandela, freed from prison in apartheid South Africa short months before, arrived here in Canada for a triumphant visit. The highlight of his trip took place on the second day of his visit when he delivered a historic address to our Parliament, thanking our country and Prime Minister Mulroney for his government's work within the Commonwealth, the G7 and every other international forum available to Canada to fight Apartheid. The visiting hero also reached back into our history, praising Mr. Diefenbaker, for example, for Dief's historic moves at removing South Africa from the Commonwealth decades before.
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.