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Today in Canada's Political History: October 19, 1996, Death of Indigenous leader James Bourque

  • Arthur Milnes

  • National Newswatch

  • October 19, 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.

Respected Indigenous leader James W. Bourque passed into history on this date in 1996. Of Cree and Métis heritage, he led the NWT’s Métis Association in the early 1980s before serving as a deputy minister in his territory’s government. Much later, in 1994, Mr. Bourque became co-director of policy for the ground-breaking Royal Commission on Aboriginal People. As part of celebrations of the 125th anniversary of Confederation in 1992, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney recommended this Métis leader for membership in the Privy Council, an extremely rare honour for a non-politician. Mr. Bourque was 60 when he died.


 

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.