Up front, full disclosure.

Arthur Milnes is a friend of mine. He shares a mutual passion for political history and has had the good fortune, from his perch at Queen's University, to meet several ex-presidents and ex-prime ministers.

(Check out this space next week to see more on that).

He's got a terrific piece in today's Toronto Star about the significance of this day in our national history.

It's a day we pause to honour our first French-Canadian prime minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who would have been 168 years old today.

Milnes is actually a John A. Macdonald fan first and foremost (they're both Kingston boys after all), and is urging decision makers to make a big deal out of Macdonald's 200th birthday, which will happen January 11, 2015.

But none of that has stopped him from reminding us that Wilfrid Laurier also made a huge contribution to Canada (nine years as opposition leader before becoming prime minister from 1896-1911) and we should remember that on this day.

If you missed Arthur's piece in The Star, you can read it here: