It was on this date in 1942 that CCF-NDP legend and Parliamentary giant Stanley Knowles was first sent to Ottawa by Winnipeg voters after his victory in a by-election. He would go on to serve 37 years in his beloved House of Commons, earning the respect and admiration of MPs from all parties.I happened to be in the Public Gallery (on a high school trip in Grade 11 or so to Parliament Hill) on the day when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, in a classy act supported by all parties, named Stanley Knowles an Honorary Officer of the House. This allowed Mr. Knowles the high honour of his sitting at the Clerk's table for the rest of his life.Though his decades of service in the Commons was broken up when he lost his seat in the great Diefenbaker landslide of 1958, he returned victorious four years later.My late Red Tory father always spoke with great reverence about Mr. Knowles.  Another Tory who had the greatest respect for Mr. Knowles was another "House of Commons Man," John Diefenbaker ,who thought his CCF-NDP opponent should be made permanent Speaker.Let’s all recall the life and legacy of Mr. Knowles today.  He remains, long after his death, a gem in Canada’s Parliamentary history.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.