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Today in Canada's Political History: August 23, 2020, Erin O’Toole elected Canada’s Conservative leader

  • Arthur Milnes

  • National Newswatch

  • August 23, 2026

Arthur Milnes, creator of Art's History on National Newswatch, is an accomplished public historian, award-winning journalist, and in-house historian at the Frontenac Club Hotel who brings Canada's political history to life through engaging stories, historical insights, and personal anecdotes drawn from his encounters with many of the country's leading figures.

Canada’s Conservatives elected a new leader on this date one-year-ago with Erin O’Toole beating Peter MacKay to earn the title of Leader of the Opposition. An Ontario MP and former cabinet minister under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, O’Toole is also a proud veteran of service in Canada military. While he was removed from the party leadership two-years later, Mr. O’Toole has soldiered on and is now a widely respected commentator on public affairs and is known for his fairness and abilities to rise above partisan politics as he does so. He is also a great supporter of my work in the field of political history who has helped me numerous times in promoting a better understanding of the nation’s rich heritage. Thank-you Mr. O’Toole.


 



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.