Sir John A. Macdonald of Kingston made history when recommended Pascal Poirier’s appointment to the Senate in 1885. In doing so, Senator Poirer became the first-ever Acadian to sit in Canada’s upper chamber. What neither he or the Father of Confederation could have foreseen, however, was the fact Poirier went on to become the nation’s longest-ever serving member of the Red Chamber, a record that still stands. All told, Senator Poirier, who passed into history on this date in 1933, served an incredible 48 years, 6 months, and 17 days.
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.