Ontario Liberals had themselves a new provincial leader on this date in 1967 when Robert Nixon was acclaimed leader of their party. He would go onto lead the Grits through three Ontario elections, never besting the powerful Ontario Tories.Nixon was the son of Harry Nixon, the latter whom served as Ontario’s Premier in the 1940s. (Robert Nixon’s daughter, Jane Stewart, also entered politics and became a leading member of Jean Chretien’s cabinet).Nixon resigned as leader in 1976, but remained in the Ontario Legislature and as a force in both the Ontario and federal wings of his party. In 1985 with the Liberals under David Peterson taking office, Nixon was appointed Treasurer. He remained in that position, anchoring the Peterson government, until the Grits were defeated by Bob Rae’s NDP in 1990. Back on the opposition benches, Nixon again became Leader of the Opposition and remained in office until 1991. He then was appointed Ontario’s Agent General in the UK by Premier Rae.Over the decades Nixon was truly his party’s indispensable man.[caption id="attachment_602576" align="alignleft" width="414"] Ontario Liberal Leader Robert Nixon, in 1975[/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.