It was, of course, on February 17 1919 that Canada’s greatest Prime Minister, Wilfrid Laurier (equaled only by Sir John A. Macdonald of Kingston) passed into history. Decades later, on the same date in 1950, Prime Minister Louis St.-Laurent took time to pay tribute to his distinguished predecessor. He did so by leading a small procession of his colleagues to Laurier’s commanding state near East Block on Parliament Hill. St.-Laurent laid a wreath of lilies and red roses at the base of the great man’s memorial.
“The anniversary of Sir Wilfrid's death," said Mr. St. Laurent afterwards, "brings back more forcibly than on other days the memories of the great part he played in the development of this nation. No one forgets that his prediction, that this century would be Canada's century, is being realized."
Sadly, today’s party leaders have most ended the tradition of honouring great leaders from the past on important anniversary dates. Perhaps such respectful gesture will return to the Hill someday. Perhaps.
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.