MacEachen was peerless parliamentarian: PM

ANTIGONISH, N.S. (CP) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered a moving tribute to the late Allan J. MacEachen on Sunday, saying the former Liberal cabinet minister should be remembered as a key architect who shaped some of Canada’s most cherished institutions.

“I bring the thanks of a grateful country,” he told about 400 people gathered for a public memorial service at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S., the institution where MacEachen served as an economics professor before entering politics in the early 1950s.

“Whether they credit him or not, Canadians are living in the country that Allan J. built, and they like it,” Trudeau said, referring to MacEachen’s nickname.

“Let us honour him by recommitting ourselves as Canadians to continuing his life’s work of hard things done well.” MacEachen died last Tuesday. He was 96. As his memorial service began, the skirl of the bagpipes filled the auditorium, and MacEachen’s flagged-draped coffin was carried in by six Mounties in red serge.

The ceremony also featured a Mi’kmaq smudging ceremony, a Gaelic prayer and traditional Celtic music, performed by fiddler Ashley MacIsaac.

Like so many others who have recounted MacEachen’s many accomplishments during his 40-year political career, Trudeau made it clear that Canadians have the wily Cape Bretoner to thank for universal health care.

“We all enjoy health care because of our needs instead of our ability to pay because of medicare,” Trudeau said, noting that it was MacEachen who, as health minister in 1966, used his “peerless parliamentary instincts” to get the Medical Care Act through Parliament.