Mulroney lauded as one of Canada’s ‘greatest’ leaders

Politicians, dignitaries and celebrities joined members of the public yesterday at a state funeral to honour Brian Mulroney, one of Canada’s most important prime ministers who in the 1980s solidified trade ties with the US and spoke out against South Africa’s apartheid.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and hockey great Wayne Gretzky were among the mourners at Montreal’s Notre-Dame Basilica.

Mulroney (pictured), who died late last month at 84, was prime minister for nine years between 1984 and 1993 and led the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.

“He shaped our history. He got the big things right,” Trudeau said outside the church before going in. “He had a huge impact.”

Mulroney’s legacy includes the North American Free Trade Agreement, signed between Canada, the US and Mexico during his time as prime minister, his participation in the fight against South African apartheid, the 1991 acid rain accord with the US and the introduction of an unpopular sales tax that represents a significant amount of government revenue.

Trudeau, Gretzky and others delivered eulogies. “He was one of the greatest prime ministers we ever had,” Gretzky said.

Former US secretary of state James Baker was scheduled to delivery an eulogy, but could not attend because of recent back surgery.

Tim McBride, a former senior White

House official who worked with Baker during George Bush’s presidency, delivered the remarks in his place.

The guest list included four former prime ministers — Jean Chretien, Joe Clark, Stephen Harper and Kim Campbell.

Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, was also on the list, as was former British prime minister John Major and the actor Ryan Reynolds.

The funeral follows four days of public tributes in Montreal and Ottawa during which political dignitaries and members of the public filed by Mulroney’s casket and paid their respects to his wife and four children.

“Every day of my life my dad told me that I was the greatest daughter that God put on this earth. Now we all know how much he liked hyperbole, but how lucky am I,” Caroline Mulroney, his daughter, said in her eulogy.

Mulroney had enduring friendships with former US presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush.

Reagan and Mulroney became friends as two national leaders during the last decade of the Cold War. Mulroney’s nine years in power overlapped with Bush’s four.

It was Mulroney’s amiable relationship with his southern counterparts that helped develop a free trade treaty, a hotly contested pact at the time.

The trade deal led to a permanent realignment of the Canadian economy and huge increases in northsouth trade. © The Associated Press