Honourable senators, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it has just come to my attention that Canada today lost one of its great statesmen, the eighteenth prime minister of Canada, somebody whom I hold deep in my heart, as all Canadians do.

I started my political career as a young Tory in 1983 at a national convention where I was enamoured by his integrity, his drive, his commitment to the public, to our country, his love for the province of Quebec, where he was born and raised, his love for our country and his love for our party.

I am proud to have served under him as a young Tory. He was always generous with his time when I was just a young teenager. His door was always open. I remember in the campaign of 1984 and 1988, I never met anyone with a more generous heart or a sharper mind.

Of course, his accomplishments were many. He was the eighteenth prime minister of Canada, elected as the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in 1983, and served with honour and integrity as Leader of the Opposition. He has some of the greatest achievements. He will be remembered for the concept of free trade. He undertook that and he achieved that success against all odds at a time when it wasn’t popular, but he knew it was right.

He fought for the GST because he thought it would help give Canada financial security, and he stood for that when it wasn’t popular. I remember time and time again, the few occasions in my life that I had the privilege to frequent with him where he always said, “In public life you don’t do what is popular; you do what is right, and you let history judge you.” That’s what he did with free trade, the GST and with apartheid. We were lauding how he was a trendsetter and he led that fight for many years.

Deep condolences to his family: Mila, Ben, Mark, Nicolas, Caroline. Thank you.

Honourable senators, it is with a heavy heart that I rise to acknowledge the passing of a great Canadian and share with you a few moments of my thoughts.

As Senator Housakos reminded us, Brian Mulroney was one of the most consequential prime ministers in our history. You could disagree with his policies, but no one could deny the impact he had on this country and the devotion with which he pursued his life in public affairs. His promotion of constitutional revitalization, though it did not succeed, was nonetheless completely to his credit.

He started his career as a young man and worked himself through the ranks of the law profession. He and my late father worked together when Brian Mulroney was a young lawyer. He was part of his team on the Port of Montreal, facilitating — what seems like aeons ago — a very significant transformation in that place.

On a personal level, my wife and I had the privilege of travelling with Mila and Brian to the former Soviet Union during the Mikhail Gorbachev era, as part of a delegation of Canadian business leaders seeking to assist in what was hoped to be the opening of the society and markets of the Soviet Union and a more liberal and pluralistic future for its people. Once again, this was an effort inspired by the best in Canadian values, which were exemplified by Brian Mulroney.

We will have occasion upon our return, in one form or another, for others to add their voices to celebrate his life, accomplishments and contributions to this country.

On behalf of my family, who knew him personally, and all of us here, I offer my condolences to his wife, Mila, and to his children, Caroline, Ben, Nicolas and Mark, and their spouses. May his memory be a blessing. Thank you.

It is with great emotion that I rise to speak since I, too, personally knew and appreciated the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney, who, being the great Quebecer that he was, always identified himself first and foremost as “the little guy from Baie-Comeau.” Mr. Mulroney was an anglophone who was open to francophones, and he spent his life bridging the two communities. He was a man who knew how to ensure that the relationship between Quebec and Canada was harmonious and respectful and that it took into account all of the unique characteristics of the country and each of the provinces.

He was also a prime minister who put a great deal of emphasis on international relations and international trade. We know that he was instrumental in securing the first free trade agreement between Canada and the United States and then in securing NAFTA. It was at that time that, as Quebec’s assistant deputy minister of international relations, I had the opportunity to go on various trade missions with him, accompanying negotiating teams from Quebec and Canada.

He always understood the interests of all parties and sought to achieve the best possible outcomes and negotiations for the country as a whole, while respecting its partners. We know that, after his terms as prime minister, he became and remained a great trade agreement negotiator for the Canadian government and a great mediator on a number of issues, including apartheid, the subject of a major negotiation with South Africa.

The circumstances are sad, but they call to mind a wonderful memory of him in Quebec City with President Reagan and his wife, when he got up on stage at the Grand Théâtre and sang When Irish Eyes Are Smiling. He was always very proud of his roots. He was a multi-faceted and respectful man. We have lost a great prime minister, a great statesman.

I, too, extend my condolences to his family, his friends and all those who mourn his loss.

Honourable senators, I want to add a few words about the great Brian Mulroney. I am struck, as I think about him in light of this news, by his vision on free trade and the vision that he had to try to heal the country with the Meech Lake Accord. Even in failure, he worked to heal the country.

With respect to South Africa, the partnership he and Joe Clark had and the work they did shook the world.

His sense of humour — the guy had an amazing way of timing stories and jokes that would bring down the house. There were so many situations that I saw him in — and others here would have as well — and he was a wonderfully funny, humorous man.

He was a family man. I remember in the early days, when I was a young man, he would talk about his mother. He was a dutiful son, and many times his stories would involve how his mother would cut him down to size, even while he was the Prime Minister.

He was a wonderful husband and a father to the four wonderful children that we’ve watched grow up. He was a grandfather. He was an amazing storyteller, with that voice that could go down nice and low and then come up — and it brought you along with him.

Taryn and I were lucky enough to spend some time and talk with him on a few occasions. It was nothing but a thrill to spend time with him and Mila and to have known an icon and great Canadian. He will be sorely missed.

I, too, I am saddened to learn of the passing of the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney earlier today.

I rarely encountered Brian Mulroney, except on a few occasions at the Ritz, where there was a popular bar. He was affable man with an easy smile.

We are not of the same generation of lawyers; by the time I started out as a young lawyer, his reputation was already established. He earned that reputation in labour law, where, as Judge Gold pointed out, he demonstrated the qualities that served him well his whole life: the ability to listen, to mediate and to find a way forward. Thanks to those qualities, he was known across Quebec as a top mediator in the field of labour law and especially at Ogilvy Renault, where he excelled at handling the most difficult collective agreements. Those qualities and his outstanding managerial abilities even earned him the top job at Iron Ore.

The funny thing is that he never lost these qualities. He made them part of his political life. He was always someone ready to listen and find a way forward. As a Quebecer, I want to honour him for the considerable effort he invested in the Meech Lake Accord, which may have been a missed opportunity for us as a country, but something that he invested in heavily and that should have succeeded. Fortunately, some parts of it are being implemented through Supreme Court rulings. I see this as an enduring legacy, and one contribution he made that I will never forget.

I should also add that Quebec supported him when he participated in negotiating the free trade agreement with the United States, and I voted for him myself. I voted for this gentleman on more than one occasion, because I thought he deserved the support of Quebecers for his efforts to ensure that Quebecers felt at home in this country and to combat certain ideas that sometimes went too far when it came to the relationship between French Canadians and English Canadians.

It would be impossible for me to talk about this man without recognizing all the efforts he made to fight apartheid, especially when we look at the series on Nelson Mandela, and to challenge Margaret Thatcher, who opposed his ideas. At certain conferences, he led Commonwealth countries to take a firm stand and declare a boycott that later proved successful. It is too early for me to say any more. This news has caught me off guard. Mr. Mulroney deserves a tribute worthy of his actions, and I hope the country will give it to him.

For me, tonight is a very sad moment. I’m going to repeat a passage that stood out for me from the speech that our colleague Senator Saint-Germain gave earlier.

Tonight, Irish eyes are not smiling anymore.

May he rest in peace.

I will reserve my comments. Senator Housakos and Senator MacDonald did a very adequate job. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. I did want to come down for the moment of silence, and I will have further comments later. Thank you.