Mr. Speaker, it is truly an honour to pay tribute to a great Canadian, a great statesman, a great Conservative and a great man. He was someone who truly lived out his life in service to his fellow Canadians.

When I think of Brian Mulroney, I think of a man who led Canada out of a very difficult time. I cannot begin to enumerate the challenges that Brian Mulroney was facing when the Canadian people placed their trust in him at an unprecedented level. The massive majority that he won in 1984 was a testament to his leadership, his charisma, his ability to connect with people and his ability to show the people of Canada that he was genuinely on their side.

When we think about what he inherited, he inherited runaway inflation. My parents had to struggle with mortgage payments back in the early eighties. I remember the stories about it at the family table. My parents were stressing about how they were going to keep a roof over our heads as interest rates were well into the double digits for many years. That was a pain known by many Canadian families, all across the country.

He inherited a deficit that was out of control, with debt costs that were burdening the taxpayers and the state. He inherited an economy that, over the years, had become choked with government intervention. There were over 60 Crown corporations in 1984 when Brian Mulroney became Prime Minister. Canadians might not know this, but at one point the Government of Canada owned gas stations, Petro-Canada. The previous Liberal government had nationalized and created Crown corporations to manage all the different aspects of the oil and gas sector, including at the retail level. Let us imagine the Government of Canada running gas stations.

Crown corporations had so choked out the productive parts of our economy that Canada was in a very difficult economic situation with minimal growth, rampant deficits, runaway inflation and interest rates that followed. What did he do? He implemented a vision of free market economics, unleashing the power of hard-working Canadians that follows when government gets off their backs and out of their way. Brian Mulroney unleashed that on our country and freed our people to do what they do best.

We can look back and see how, at the end of his tenure, he had wrestled inflation to the ground and brought those interest rates down, and the dynamic private sector flourished and grew. Canadians rewarded him with a second term in 1988.

I truly believe that the mark of a leader who holds an office of power, whether it is a premier, prime minister or a mayor, is whether their political opponents undo the things that they have done. We all remember the debates at the time when Brian Mulroney was bringing in his vision of free trade. Free trade is such a great example of his leadership ability, his passion and his conviction. It was terribly unpopular for many months and years, but he saw the long-term benefits that would pay off for Canada. He saw that, once businesses and people would be able to freely trade back and forth with our largest ally, our largest economy and our largest trading partner, the gains would be massive.

In the 1988 election, every other political party fought him tooth and nail. This was not just a secondary or small issue that flared up a little. This was the seminal question of the 1988 election. Every single vested interest group that knew it had been benefiting from state protection went to war to confuse Canadians, undermine the arguments that were being presented, and try to scare people into voting against the free trade deal and against the Conservative Party. Many a politician would have taken a look at those polling numbers and said that they could not touch it, that it was not something that would fly.

It is campaigning 101 when we sit down with our team, look at our platform, look at the polls and say that we might like to do something one day, but the Canadian people are not there; we are not going to offer it and are not going to commit. Brian Mulroney said to forget the polls, that it was about what our country needed, what would make our country stronger and what would make our country more prosperous, and he fought through it all. With the power of his conviction, with his amazing communication style and with that smooth, silky baritone voice, he was able to convince Canadians to place their trust in him once again.

Of course, every single successive government has not only promised to keep that free trade deal, but now competes for better free trade deals. Political parties now have to show Canadians how they are going to find more markets for our exports and how they are going to sign new free trade deals with other countries. It is now remarkable to watch when we think back to that 1988 election and look at elections today.

He denationalized, as my colleague from Quebec just mentioned a few moments ago, over 20 Crown corporations that were cluttering up the economy. We all know what happens when governments run things. When governments run things, they do not provide great services at affordable costs. They are not responsive to consumer needs; they are responsive to what works best for government. We see this across the board. Imagine living in a country where there are 63 Crown corporations in everything from railways to airlines to retail gasoline. Brian Mulroney helped declutter the economy. He went to work weeding the garden.

That is how I evaluate a former prime minister's legacy. Despite all the opponents who were promising to fight tooth and nail over his vision and agenda, have any of them undone what he did? The answer is largely no, because he was right. It did make Canada a better place to have free trade deals. It did make Canada a better place to have a more dynamic free market where Canadians were free to do what they do best and be prosperous. The fact that so much of his legacy is intact today and that political parties compete over who will protect that legacy stronger is an amazing testament to Brian Mulroney as a statesman.

I want to share a couple of anecdotes to show what Brian Mulroney was as a human being.

To say that he was magnanimous would be an understatement, and he was not just charming. When we give praise, sometimes people think we are just engaging in flattery or trying to be nice so that someone reciprocates. With Brian Mulroney, it was genuine. People genuinely felt, whether it was in a phone call, when bumping into him at an event or when having the opportunity to sit down and really unpack something, that the entire time they were with Brian, they were the most important person in the world at that moment.

He was so quick to compliment and so slow to criticize. His criticism was always constructive, and he was such a booster, not just of the Conservative Party but of Canada. He wanted Canada to succeed. We saw this time and time again. When political parties of different stripes reached out to him for help on a file, he always said yes, because he always put his country first, and he always knew that his Conservative principles would make his country so much better.

He would often call me during my tenure as leader of the party. I was so thankful that I had the opportunity to tap into that wisdom and experience. Every single phone call I had with Brian Mulroney started off with the subject of what he wanted to talk about. He would say, “I want to talk to you about something”, and he would say what it was. However, he would also say, “Before we get there, how is that wonderful wife of yours? How is Jill doing? How are Thomas, Grace, Madeline, Mary and Henry?” He knew all their names, and he knew how old they were. He knew what I had told him the last time I was on the phone with him. If I mentioned that one of my children was playing sports, he would ask how that basketball team of theirs was going. He genuinely demonstrated that he cared about people on a human level, not just because of the office they happened to hold.

I could tell in everything he did that his guiding light was his family too. Mila was the rock, the person he credits with all his success, and his wonderful children have all gone on to be very successful themselves.

I just want to thank Brian Mulroney. I thank him for the service that he provided for our country. I thank Mila and their children. I thank them for putting up with the fact that they had to share their dad and husband for so many years with this wonderful country.

I sincerely wish that he rests in peace and that his friends and family are comforted in this difficult time and during the public state ceremonies and his funeral.

Thanks very much, Brian Mulroney. May you rest in peace.

Andrew Scheer

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