ATHABASCA — Saturday, March 23 marked the first former prime minister’s funeral since the passing of John Turner in late 2020. Former Rochester principal and Athabasca County councillor Larry Speers said his plans for the day involved tuning into the live broadcast of Brian Mulroney’s funeral and taking a moment of silence to honour the man he met on more than one occasion.
“He was one of our best prime ministers,” Speers told The Advocate in a March 22 interview. “Keeping Canada together and treating people well was very important to him.”
Speers recalled a 1989 trip to Ottawa during his tenure as principal of Rochester School. Some 25 Grade 8 and 9 students, including their chaperones and Speers himself, headed east for some hands-on political education.
Speers said the class was able to sit in on a question period, and got up close and personal with the politicians, including Mulroney, afterwards.
“He lined up all the ministers and they shook hands with all of our students,” he said. “We were very pleased, not everybody gets to shake hands with their prime minister.”
A second chance encounter three years later still sticks out in Speer’s mind. On a return trip to visit his children in Thailand, Speers said he saw an unexpected, yet familiar face in the Los Angelos International Airport.
“I see this fellow coming down there pulling his suitcase, and I knew who it was right away,” said Speers. “I walked up to him and said, ‘It’s sure nice to see a friendly Canadian face,’ and he looked at me and said, ‘I know you from somewhere.’”
The pair chatted with Mulroney and bought candy for his kids, a memory Speers fondly recalled. “I just thought that was awesome, for a man in his position to spend a little time and talk at ease with fellow Canadians.”
Mulroney passed Feb. 29 in Florida at the age of 84. He held the position of prime minister from 1984 to 1993, is remembered for his staunch opposition to Apartheid, his environmental protection efforts, and economic reforms such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Goods and Services Tax.
While not popular with everyone, his impacts have been honoured with half-mast flags across the country and kind words spoken at his funeral at the Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal.
"He took risks and, by doing so, became one of those rarest of leaders — able to define an era as his own," former Quebec premier and cabinet member under Mulroney, Jean Charest, said during the event.
"Here, now, at this very moment, we live in a world that he helped shape."
