He has a highway, public buildings, awards and three elementary schools named after him.

Now the late Lincoln Alexander — Canada's first black MP and federal cabinet minister, not to mention Ontario lieutenant-governor — has his own day.

Ontario MPPs unanimously approved a private member's bill Thursday afternoon from Wellington-Halton Hills Progressive Conservative MPP Ted Arnott to designate Jan. 21 as Lincoln Alexander Day across Ontario.

The bill was co-sponsored by Hamilton East-Stoney Creek New Democrat MPP Paul Miller and Scarborough-Rouge Liberal MPP Bas Balkissoon.

Several MPPs — including Liberal cabinet minister Ted McMeekin, Burlington Progressive Conservative MPP Jane McKenna and Halton Progressive Conservative MPP Ted Chudleigh — spoke in favour of the bill during the one-hour debate, and Miller took note of the non-partisan support.

Alexander's widow Marni Beal and Rosemary Sadlier, president of the Ontario Black History Society, were in the legislature to watch the proceedings.

"We are very proud of Lincoln Alexander in Hamilton," said Miller, who recalls meeting him and being put at ease by Alexander's request to just call him Linc. "I'm thrilled all three parties came together on this. It's a good thing to do, and it certainly honours a man that is more than deserving of this special day."

Arnott, who came up with the idea because of Alexander's longtime service as chancellor of Guelph University, also applauded the unity on the bill. He recalled the time Alexander paid a visit to a settlement founded by former slaves in his riding in 2008 and got both of them laughing when he laid eyes on the MPP and commented, "They told me there would be some big shots here."

"Today, the Ontario legislature speaks with one voice and we say to the Honourable Lincoln MacCauley Alexander, well done," Arnott said.

Beal called the proclamation "fabulous" and said she had been working for the last year to have her husband honoured. She believed it provides a wonderful opportunity for educators.

"It opens discussions on so many levels on what being a Canadian is all about," she said after the vote. "Even if it is just to inspire kids, here he came from poor beginnings and look at what he did, and you can too."

Alexander, who came to Hamilton from Toronto after the Second World War, died last year on Oct. 19. He was 90.

He served as a sergeant in the RCAF during the war. He spurned the idea of becoming a railway porter, which was the path for many black Canadians in the middle of the 20th Century, and became a lawyer.

He was elected as the first black MP and a Conservative for Hamilton West in 1968 and became the first black cabinet minister when he was named labour minister in the short-lived Joe Clark government. He served as Ontario's first black lieutenant governor from 1985-1991.

Alexander always heralded education as the way to get ahead and wrote his autobiography in 2006, naming it after something his mother always said to him: "Go to school, you're a little black boy."

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Former Stoney Creek Liberal MPP Jennifer Mossop introduced a bill in 2007 to set aside a day to recognize Alexander, but it was not passed into law before that year's election.

- Lincoln Alexander dies at 90