It is time today to celebrate the life and legacy of one of the most powerful and important cabinet ministers in Canadian history. I speak, of course, of the legendary C.D. Howe.Clarence Decatur Howe was born in Massachusetts, on this date in 1886. Howe earned an engineering degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later taught at Halifax's Dalhousie University. In 1913, he applied to become a British subject, as Canadian citizens were then called.  Twenty years later he accepted Mackenzie King's invitation to run for the federal Liberals and in 1935 both he and the Party were comfortably elected.Howe would go on to anchor both the Mackenzie King and Louis St. Laurent cabinets, becoming known to all as the “Minister of Everything.” He served continually in cabinet from 1935 to 1957.During the Second World War he played a pivotal role in Canada’s war efforts as Minister of Munitions and Supply. Post-war he again played a leading role, helping ensure that Canada’s economy transitioned successfully from a war-footing to peace-time. Marking his birthday also again reminds us of the fact that both Prime Ministers St. Laurent and King both wanted strong and independent members of their cabinets.In 1958, after his political career, Howe became Chancellor of Dalhousie University.  He passed into history in 1960.In honour of his legacy, the C.D. Howe Building, on Ottawa's Sparks Street has been the headquarters of successive iterations of the Government of Canada's industry department.[caption id="attachment_601068" align="alignleft" width="257"] C.D. Howe[/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.