One of the most important leaders of what would someday become today’s NDP was born on this date in 1874 in Ontario. J.S. Woodsworth. A leading advocate for labour during difficult times for the movement, he became the first leader of the NDP’s legacy party, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in 1932, and would hold that post for a decade. A man of principle, Prime Minister Mackenzie King once told the House that Woodsworth was a jewel in the nation’s Parliament, whatever his party affiliation. Mr. Woodsworth passed into history in 1942 at the relatively youthful age of 67.
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.