P.E.I. politicians past and present remember Brian Mulroney with respect

Prince Edward Island politicians past and present are paying tribute to Brian Mulroney, calling the former prime minister a visionary leader who was a champion for the Island.   

Mulroney, Canada's 18th prime minister, died Thursday at the age of 84. 

In the legislature Friday, P.E.I. Premier Dennis King highlighted the many initiatives Mulroney pushed forward as prime minister from 1984 to 1993. They included the formation of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the establishment of the Summerside tax centre, funding for the construction of the Confederation Bridge, and the creation of the aerospace sector in Summerside's Slemon Park. 

King said he once told Mulroney in a phone call that he "did more for the GDP [gross domestic product] of Prince Edward Island than any prime minister in our history."

He added: "Brian Mulroney is the reason I'm a Progressive Conservative. The province of Prince Edward Island owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to Brian Mulroney. As he takes his seat at the table of global leaders — and he was as good as any of them — I would say to him, 'Thank you, sir, for a life of service and a life well-lived.'"

Opposition Leader Hal Perry also praised Mulroney for locating the tax centre in Summerside to support the community with jobs after the closure of the city's Canadian Forces Base. 

"The opening of the tax centre has been a great, great benefit to our province," Perry said. "I have great admiration for anyone who's willing to devote themselves to public service, and I do believe history will treat Brian Mulroney very well." 

As well as being a gifted public speaker and a skilled politician, Mulroney was one of Canada's most controversial prime ministers. 

He brokered a free trade deal with the United States and introduced the Goods and Services Tax to raise funds to help quell ballooning budget deficits. 

While he was born in Baie-Comeau, Que., he went to a private high school in New Brunswick and attended St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. 

It was because of that connection that former P.E.I. MP and Mulroney cabinet minister Tom McMillan considered Mulroney "as much a Maritime prime minister as he was a Quebec prime minister," he said in an interview Friday. 

"He had legendary Irish charm. He was gregarious, very outgoing," McMillan said. "I think he was the best manager of people that I ever knew. He attached a lot of importance to detail… but he never took his eye off the ball of what was important and what was secondary." 

Liberal MLA Robert Henderson first met Mulroney when he himself was quite young. Henderson's father George was the MP for P.E.I.'s Egmont riding and served in opposition to Mulroney's Progressive Conservative government. 

Henderson said in the legislature that he met the former prime minister at his father's swearing-in on Parliament Hill.