It was on this date in 2011 that Canada’s 22nd Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Stephen J. Harper, was named an honorary member of the Kainai Chieftainship by the Blood Tribe of Alberta. The tribe’s leaders felt that Harper deserved special recognition after he made the all-important official apology to Indigenous Canada for the nation’s role in the residential school system.
“It is a great privilege to be named an honorary Chief of Alberta’s Blood Tribe, a strong and proud First Nation,” Harper said. “I am particularly proud of this honour given it recognizes the efforts that our Government has been taking to help preserve the rich culture and heritage of First Nations in Canada while also investing in the future of Aboriginal peoples… My family and I are deeply grateful for this gift and I will carry my Blood name, Chief Speaker, with great joy and pride.”
The former Prime Minister chose to include the Kanai flag in his official Parliament Hill portrait that was unveiled earlier this year.
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.