Tribute to The Late Right Honourable Brian Mulroney, P.C., C.C., G.O.Q.

Honourable senators, I grew up in a Canada that had every advantage in the world, but we had an inferiority complex. We resented our more confident neighbours and denied our own potential.

There were battles over who owned Western oil, and Quebec separatists were angry. By 1984, “. . . time for a change” was to risk understatement. It was the largest win in history for “the boy from Baie-Comeau.”

The Right Honourable Brian Mulroney became a leader of great consequence, a modern-day founding father of a new Canada.

With his powerful will, discipline and amazing people skills, he did transform our nation.

He understood that relationships were key. He forged the Acid Rain Treaty before the environment was cool and convinced Reagan and Thatcher to dismantle apartheid; Nelson Mandela called him a hero.

As Mandela said, “There is no passion to be found playing small. . . .” Brian Mulroney never played small. He practised what his friend Wayne Gretzky preached: You’ve got to “. . . skate to where the puck is going to be . . . .”

So he risked it all on the free trade agreement. It would define us and finally put us in the economic game.

The goods and services tax, or GST, which no leader today would ever forfeit, was all part of standing us up. Unpopularity was the price of his boldness. It cost him everything politically, but a confident Canada came of age, and we lost that chip on our shoulder.

I smiled when some claimed he was the most divisive Prime Minister in history, with scandals and ministers fired.

Well, as someone who was there covering it all, there were indeed resignations, because Brian Mulroney believed in accountability and that ministers should take responsibility — a belief which seems to have sadly been lost. It is a testament to leadership when principle withstands the elixir of power.

His partisanship was always respectful, knowing that the tables inevitably turn.

He embraced those who told him the truth.

At his core was a natural empathy. There was always a call, a note or a hand on your shoulder.

He never forgot a name or face — nor a grudge or slight, but he had heart.

He respected and listened to women, particularly Mila, his smartest adviser and true partner, with whom he raised four fine citizens.

As we mourn the loss of a good man, we remember Mandela’s plea:

Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.

If there is ever a time to invoke Theodore Roosevelt’s praise for a life lived “. . . in the arena . . .” it is when speaking of Martin Brian Mulroney. You know the words:

The credit belongs to the man . . . who spends himself in a worthy cause . . . so that his place shall never be with those . . . timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.

Prime Minister, rest in peace. You, sir, have earned it.