History was made on this day in 1985 when Prime Minister Brian Mulroney appointed former Progressive Conservative MP and cabinet minister, Lincoln Alexander, as Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. In doing so, Alexander became the first Black Canadian to represent Her Majesty the Queen in a Canadian province. He was to serve as LG until 1991, earning the respect and praise of all Ontarians. Alexander later served as the longest-ever Chancellor of the University of Guelph. He died, at age 90, in 2012.
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.