It was on this date in 1878 that Canada’s Father of Confederation led his party to perhaps the single greatest comeback in the history of our politics. After five years in political exile, imposed by voters due to his and his government’s role in the Pacific Scandal, Canadians were in a forgiving mood and re-elected Macdonald and his Tories with a strong majority mandate.From today’s vantage point it seems impossible that a Prime Minister found to have taken campaign bribes as Sir John A. and many of his MPs did during the 1872 election would be forgiven by the electorate.  But, Macdonald’s hold on Canadians was formidable and soon, back in office, he would unite the new Dominion from east to west with the Canadian Pacific Railway. Indeed, and in many ways, the Macdonald era was just beginning.[caption id="attachment_583607" align="alignleft" width="400"] Portrait of Sir John A. MacDonald[/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.