Brian Mulroney has passed away, but his legacy will live on forever. He opened the doors to prosperity by drawing on deep convictions.
He was one of those rare leaders who truly believed in the power of Canada, thus contributing to our pride in being Canadian.
JMTL
Standing
He stood strong and proud in the face of the injustice of apartheid, despite the positions of his allies Reagan and Thatcher. He had the deep conviction that Canada’s word had weight and strength. He was not a parrot nor a lacquer of any other foreign nation. He was the representative of a nation that truly wanted to fight injustice, and he did so with dignity.
He also stood courageously against those who saw free trade as the death of our soul. At a time when commercial treaties were rare, he had the courage to promote them and convince them.
He stood proudly in implementing the GST, even though it went against Conservative philosophy. This tax helped strengthen Canada’s financial capabilities, and no other government has been able to abolish it.
Brian Mulroney believed deeply in this country. He saw in its unity the essential ingredient for its political, economic and cultural development. He knew that reconciliation with Quebec was a sine qua non condition, and he put all his heart into it to convince René Lévesque of the “good risk”.
- Listen to the testimony of Luc Lavoie, close friend of Brian Mulroney, on the microphone of Yasmine Abdelfadel via QUB :
Minority
Mulroney was also the eternal representative of a minority. As a Quebecer, he understood the urgency of protecting a minority nation, its language and its culture, from the North American ocean. As an English speaker from Baie-Comeau, he knew what it was like to be different, to speak a different language from his neighbor and his community. Coming from a modest family of workers, he was not intimidated by his colleagues at Laval University from bourgeois families. He always saw his difference as a strength to be exploited rather than regretted.
Mr. Mulroney’s positioning on the political spectrum was unique. No other political leader who succeeded him managed to occupy this truly center-right position, which corresponded to the beliefs of many Canadians. Many of us feel like political orphans in the face of this void.
Courageous, upright and proud leaders like Brian Mulroney are rare these days. He represents the best of the Canadian political scene of the last 50 years. We already felt his political absence before his death, and we will miss it even more now.