Mr. Speaker, what an honour it is for me to stand in this place, pay tribute to the Right Hon. Brian Mulroney and express my sincere condolences to his family: his wife, Mila; daughter, Caroline; and sons, Mark, Nicolas and Ben. I had the opportunity to meet with the family today, and I expressed my sincere condolences on behalf of the people of Barrie—Innisfil.

On my 18th birthday, I was a kid working the all-night shift at a country music radio station in Brandon, Manitoba. I think the member for Brandon—Souris thought I was going to tell that story. The reason I mention it is that it was around the time Brian Mulroney had entered the political scene. I had not really thought much about politics at that time, but there was just something about him. There was something about his magnetism and his communication skills.

Maybe it was the background in radio that I was pursuing, my fledgling radio career, but there was just something that drew me to him. At that moment, during that period, I became a Progressive Conservative. I was not as active in the political movement at that time. I later became very active, under former prime minister Stephen Harper. However, there was something that piqued my interest in politics, and it was Brian Mulroney, not just in the way he communicated but in his vision.

If I were to describe him in one way, in one word, it would be “bold”. I have sat here through most of the debate tonight, and I know there are a lot of ways to describe the former prime minister. He was bold. He was bold at a time when Canada needed to be bold, not just domestically but internationally as well.

I know several of my colleagues have recounted how we had come out of a period of great despair; interest rates were high. He made some bold decisions, and they were not very popular. That is really the sign of leadership, when we think about it: moving people in a direction they know they should be going in when they are not willing to do so. That is what Brian Mulroney did for this country. He led us into a period of economic prosperity, for which we ought to be grateful. In many cases, it was a long-lasting prosperity.

Brian Mulroney obviously won the largest majority in the history of this country. Not only did he draw in a young, impressionable 18-year-old radio DJ at that time, but he did the same for the rest of the nation, and there was a reason for that. He had the type of personality that drew people in. He had the capability to communicate effectively and share his vision for the nation. He did that very well.

We can think of his accomplishments, many positive, some controversial, and what he did around the world: He restored Canada's place as a well-respected global leader. Brian Mulroney was the epitome of a statesman in the way he carried himself and communicated with other leaders.

We can think of where he was in terms of the stature of other world leaders: He was their equal. He was not below or above. When he walked into a room and talked about the things that were important globally, such as fighting apartheid in South Africa and environmental issues, he had the respect of the room. Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Helmut Kohl, François Mitterrand and Mikhail Gorbachev were larger-than-life figures for their own reasons. Brian Mulroney could walk into a room and deal and talk with those people at a level that I do not think we have seen in this country for a long time. He garnered respect.

He was bold in his love of Canada. It was what this nation meant to him. He believed in Canada and our Confederation. He believed in the inclusion of all the provinces. We saw that evidenced by his work on the Meech Lake accord and the Charlottetown accord. He really worked to bring this country together at a time when it needed it the most.

He did this not only in the time that he was prime minister but also long after he was prime minister. We have heard stories tonight of him reaching out and influencing. Even earlier this week, when the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition spoke about Brian Mulroney, they spoke about receiving phone calls from him; based on his experience, he gave them his best advice. Whether it was the update to the Canada-U.S. free trade agreement or other things, he was always there to provide advice. He was always there to comfort people in their time of greatest need, whether he would make phone calls or simply write people notes.

I heard these stories long ago, and it is a practice that I have adopted as a member of Parliament to write notes to people in a way that Brian Mulroney would have done, or simply call people just to see how they are doing. He had the ability to draw one in, and when in the room with him, it did not matter whether there was one person or 1,000 people; he had a way of making a person feel special and that he could connect with them.

Later on, after the election in 2015, I got to know the prime minister. We shared a desire, he and I, on the Gulf War veterans. As members know, it was Brian Mulroney who cobbled together a coalition of like-minded countries that saw the need to deal with Saddam Hussein in Kuwait. Again, it was that principled foreign policy approach. Brian Mulroney brought this alliance together and caused Saddam to retreat out of Kuwait, which was the impetus for the war in the Persian Gulf. I know that Prime Minister Mulroney cared very deeply and was very passionate about sending Canadian troops over to the Persian Gulf.

Brian Mulroney could tell a story like nobody else, and in our shared desire to see the Gulf War veterans elevated to wartime status as opposed to UN mission status, I recall a story he told. He was talking about his concern over sending CF-18s to the Persian Gulf. He was on the phone with Hosni Mubarak, who was then the president of Egypt. Brian told this story at an event, and he said in that deep baritone voice, “Hosni, I'm very concerned about sending CF-18 pilots to fight in the Persian Gulf War.” Hosni Mubarak said to him, in his Egyptian accent, “Brian, you don't have to worry about that.” Brian goes “What do you mean, Hosni? How can I not worry about that? These are our pilots flying our planes.” Hosni said, “The reason you don't have to worry about it is that we trained the Iraqi pilots. We know they're bad pilots.” Prime Minister Mulroney said at the time that it gave him comfort in the fact that he was making the right decision at that point to send our troops over to the Persian Gulf.

As I said, we shared the desire to see the Persian Gulf War veterans elevated to wartime status. I say that in the past tense, unfortunately, with his passing. If we are going to pay tribute to the legacy of Brian Mulroney and the deep compassion, the empathy and the concern he had for so many others, I would call on the House as a matter of his legacy to see if we can come together as parties, as government, to ensure that the desire to have those Gulf War veterans elevated to wartime status is met. We have done that twice in our history, with the Korean War veterans and the merchant mariners. In honour of Prime Minister Mulroney, we should be doing that for our Persian Gulf War veterans.

As I conclude, I am fortunate that my riding of Barrie—Innisfil is adjacent to that of the president of the Treasury Board for the Province of Ontario, Caroline Mulroney. I get to spend a lot of time working with Caroline on joint issues and shared common things within our area of central Ontario.

On behalf of the people whom I represent in Barrie—Innisfil, I stand here tonight to express my sincere condolences to Mila, Caroline, Mark, Nicolas and Ben and to thank them for their contributions to our nation and for sharing who was, in my view, a very remarkable Canadian: Brian Mulroney.

John Brassard

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