To amuse and to educate
Daughter’s farewell one of several tributes in state funeral
“He wanted us to bury him with his podium.”
The request uttered from the late Brian Mulroney to his daughter Caroline sparked peals of laughter in Montreal’s Notre-dame Basilica on Saturday as hundreds braved the blustery day to bid farewell to Canada’s 18th prime minister, who died last month at age 84.
Speaking fondly of her father’s love of speeches, Caroline Mulroney shared stories from his long and storied career — tales she said were told as much to amuse as to educate.
“My dad’s Irish heritage was the rock from which his character was cut. Baie-comeau, Quebec — his hometown — was the quarry from which it was dug,” she said.
Mulroney, a minister in the cabinet of Ontario Premier Doug Ford, reflected fondly on the lessons she learned from her father.
“He became a truly great prime minister and a world leader, but to us, he was more than that. He was a truly great father.
“Spending time with him was a joy,” she said with a smile. “He set no course for his children, other than to support our dreams, aspirations and happiness.”
During his life, she said there wasn’t a day when she or her brothers would not hear from him.
“‘Sweetie, its your old daddy calling,’ he would say,” she recalled. “Thousands of people have shared stories about his phone calls, they said that they felt that they had been touched — not just by someone who changed the course of history, but by an exceptionally kind, thoughtful and generous person who often reached out when they needed to be lifted up.”
“My dad saw the world in a bigger way than most. His humanity defined him, which is why he transcended politics and connected with people in a way that left an indelible mark on their hearts and souls,” said Mulroney
She recalled her father’s final hours in a Florida hospital, when Mila Mulroney put her hands on her husband’s cheeks and said, “Oh Brian, are you coming back to me?”
In response, a tired Brian Mulroney looked at his wife of 51 years and said, in his final words, “I plan to.”
Caroline Mulroney was one of half a dozen to eulogize the late Conservative prime minister who led the country from 1984 until 1993. From hockey great Wayne Gretzky to former U.S. secretary of state James Baker and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Brian Mulroney was lionized as a great Canadian and visionary leader.
His legacy includes the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico; his participation in the fight against South African apartheid; the 1991 acid rain accord; and the introduction of the GST.
Trudeau remarked his thoughts that day were of the four Mulroney children — seated in the church’s first few pews.
“First and foremost, Brian was motivated by service,” Trudeau said during his eulogy. “He was motivated by leadership, by getting the big things right. Big things like free trade, fighting to raise the standard of living for Canadians and for millions of people, first through the Canada-u.s. FTA (free trade agreement,) and then through NAFTA.”
Former Quebec premier Jean Charest, who served in Mulroney’s cabinet, remembered his friend as somebody who owes his political career to his wife.
“When he appointed me to his cabinet, he said that he never would have become prime minister if it hadn’t been for the support and love of his wife,” Charest recalled.
He recalled Mulroney, shortly after becoming party leader, began the job of preparing his caucus to one day govern Canada.
“He won two commanding majorities. He was prime minister, and he would make it count.”
Charest said that Mulroney’s two majority mandates were largely about change — whether that change was welcome or not.
“I can’t think of a more unpopular economic policy than implementation of the GST, yet I can’t think of a more popular economic policy with all of the prime ministers and governments that followed in the steps of Brian Mulroney,” Charest said, eliciting a smile and affirming nod from Trudeau, seated in a frontrow pew next to Gov. Gen. Mary Simon.
Charest said that, in international affairs, Mulroney walked among giants.
“Reagan. Bush. Thatcher. Major. Mitterrand. Kohl. (Former Japanese prime minister Yasuhiro) Nakasone. (Former Senegalese president) Abdou Diouf. Gorbachev,” he said, reading out a who’s who of 1980s world leaders Mulroney rubbed shoulders with.
Mulroney was prime minister when the Berlin Wall fell and Nelson Mandela was released from prison, Charest noted.
“We were the first western nation to recognize a free and proud Ukraine, and in one of his greatest moments, Brian Mulroney united all Canadians with pride and resolve as he and our nations helped Nelson Mandela take his first walk to freedom,” he said.
Charest recalled the final weeks of Mulroney’s life was spent defending Israel and denouncing anti-semitism.
But it was Mulroney himself who had the last word at his own funeral — even without a podium.
His distinctive baritone filled the basilica, posthumously accompanying granddaughter Elizabeth Theodora Lapham in a version of “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” — the song he famously sang with former U.S. president Ronald Reagan during the 1985 “Shamrock Summit.”