It was on this date in 1985 that the Commons, six years after his death, voted unanimously to erect a statue of the great John Diefenbaker on Parliament Hill. The initiative was led by one of my hometown MPs, Scarborough-Centre’s legendary Pauline Browes. Winnipeg-based artist Leo Mol was commissioned to craft Dief’s commanding statue which was unveiled on Parliament Hill on Mr. Diefenbaker’s birthday, September 18, 1986. This statue of one of Canada’s greatest-ever Parliamentarians is one of my favourites in the Parliament Hill statue collection.And speaking of Prime Ministerial statues, I note that for reasons no one has ever been able to explain to me, no statue has been erected on the Hill in honour of majority Prime Minister R.B. Bennett. This is a slight that must be corrected. I would also argue it is time for a statue to be raised on Parliament Hill in honour of Pierre Trudeau. Finally, I note sadly that Prime Ministers Abbott, Thompson, Bowell, Tupper, Meighen and Turner, shamefully, also have no Hill statues to honour them.[caption id="attachment_542214" align="aligncenter" width="450"] Statue of John Diefenbaker, Parliament Hill[/caption]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.