Former prime minister Brian Mulroney will be given a state funeral, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says.
A Progressive Conservative, Mulroney will go down as one of Canada’s most prominent figures. He died Thursday in Florida at the age of 84. His daughter Caroline said he died “peacefully and surrounded by family.”
Born in Baie-Comeau, Que., in 1939, Mulroney would go on to build a political career marked by his leadership of the at-times fractious coalition of Western conservatives, Red Tories and Quebec nationalists.
That coalition made up the old centrist Progressive Conservative Party, and left a legacy of securing the original NAFTA trade deal with the U.S. and Mexico as well as of passing the goods and service tax into law.
He was also commended for his strong opposition to apartheid in South Africa, helping to lead the global sanctions that brought that regime to an end, and his environmental achievements including acid rain reductions and the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
Mulroney served as the country’s 18th prime minister, leading the nation from 1984 to 1993.
Trudeau told reporters in Sudbury, Ont., Friday that details on the state funeral will come, and that Canadians will have opportunities to express their gratitude in the coming days.
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A source close to the Mulroney family told Global News Friday the state funeral will be held in Montreal. They said other details about the funeral and about the repatriation of Mulroney’s body from Florida are not yet ready to be announced. Members of the Mulroney family are not expected to make any further public statements, but are expected to confirm those details in the coming days.
Mulroney “was committed to this country, loved it with all his heart and served it for many, many years in many different ways,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters Thursday night.
“He shaped our past, but he shapes our present and he will impact our future as well. He was an extraordinary statesman and he will be deeply, deeply missed.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told reporters he last spoke to Mulroney six weeks before he passed away, and said he took inspiration from his “humble beginnings” and the successes he enjoyed throughout his life.
“I know all Canadians join with me in saying that we will miss that deep, beautiful, rich voice and that big, friendly, Irish smile,” he said.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh on Friday called Mulroney’s death a “significant loss” to the country.
Then prime minister Brian Mulroney, along with the trade minister Pat Carney, makes a statement after briefing the provincial premiers on the state of the North American trade talks in this Sept. 14, 1987, file photo in Ottawa.
Chuck Mitchell/The Canadian Press
The House of Commons adjourned early on Thursday night upon news of Mulroney’s death.
Mulroney is survived by his wife, Mila, and four children. Caroline Mulroney is Ontario’s treasury board president and francophone affairs minister, and Ben Mulroney is a well-known TV personality. Both Mark and Nicholas Mulroney have careers in banking.
— with files from David Akin
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