CANADA 2nd SESSION 35th PARLIAMENT VOLUME 135 NUMBER 33 OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD) Wednesday, June 19, 1996 THE HONOURABLE GILDAS L. MOLGAT SPEAKER CONTENTS (Daily index of proceedings appears at back of this issue.) Debates: Victoria Building, Room 407, Tel. 996-0397 Published by the Senate Available from Canada Communication Group — Publishing, Public Works and Government Services Canada, Ottawa K1A 0S9, at $1.75 per copy or $158 per year. Also available on the Internet: http://www.parl.gc.ca 733 THE SENATE Wednesday, June 19, 1996 The Senate met at 1:30 p.m., the Speaker in the Chair. As Minister of Health in the Pearson government in the mid-1960s, he was at the very heart of the debates on health care. Prayers. If anyone ever wonders who the real father of Medicare was, let there be no doubt: He is sitting right beside me, the Honourable Allan J. MacEachen. THE HONOURABLE ALLAN J. MACEACHEN (1340) TRIBUTES ON RETIREMENT Honourable senators, he also placed his mark on the Canada Hon. Joyce Fairbairn (Leader of the Government): Pension Plan, the Canada Assistance Plan, the Guaranteed Honourable senators, in spite of all the warning signals, Income Supplement for needy seniors, and on the Canada Labour retirement day for Allan J. MacEachen comes suddenly, Code. unthinkably, and irresistibly, but it also creates a opportunity for all of us to pay a hearty tribute to him and to say a fervent Back in 1963, The Toronto Star once described him as “Thank you.” “probably the ablest labour minister Canada has had,” but I have a better source, honourable senators. Prime Minister John Over the past 34 years on Parliament Hill, I have reported as a Diefenbaker growled his approval to me one day, confiding: journalist on the activities of this gentleman. I have toiled behind “That young MacEachen is the best minister in Pearson’s the scenes with him as an associate both in government and in cabinet.” opposition. I have shared with him the highs and the lows of election campaigns. For the last 12 years, I have worked with It has been said that Senator MacEachen has held more cabinet him in this house as a colleague. portfolios than any other minister of the Crown in Canada’s history. This includes his masterful role in leadership of the Honourable senators, I am enormously proud to have Allan House of Commons with Prime Minister Trudeau; his two terms MacEachen as a friend. as Minister of External Affairs; and a rather tempestuous stint as a finance minister whose controversial 1981 budget was, This is a man who came to Ottawa with a purpose and a nonetheless, a true effort to liberate Canadians from the twin vision. That purpose and that vision were rooted back in evils of abnormally high interest rates and inflation. He also was Inverness on Cape Breton Island where his father worked in the Canada’s very first Deputy Prime Minister. coal pits for more than 40 years. But, perhaps, honourable senators, what is not yet fully appreciated is the very real change which flowed from his A young Allan J. left his home for St. Francis Xavier leadership in this Senate. For over a decade, he has challenged us University where the cause of social activism was embedded in to inject a sense of activism in our work. When he arrived here as his conscience by the legendary teacher and founder of the Leader of the Opposition in 1984, he resisted the notion, Antigonish movement, Monsignor Moses Coady, who inspired in advanced by some members, that ours is an advisory role only. In him a life-long conviction that things could be changed. one of his early speeches, he said: In a recent interview, he talked about what he thought When I came to the Senate, I assumed I was entering a government was meant to be. He said: legislative body... The modern Senate of Canada ought to mean more than quiet diplomacy and persuasion. Helping those who need help most was, and still must remain, a government principle of action.... It constitutes a Honourable senators, Allan J. practised what he preached. The beacon in the shifting sands of public taste and we ought to evidence that his views have prevailed is borne out by what has always keep it in mind in assessing the legitimacy of public occurred over the last two years in the important bill on which policy. we will be voting later today. This process would have been unimaginable in the Senate 12 years ago. Throughout the 43 years of his life he has spent on Parliament Hill, he has steadfastly put those words into action. Throughout all these years of excitement, of tumult, of accolades, of lively criticism, Allan J. has always found his In addition to being the finest and most eloquent strength, not in the centre of power, but in his beloved eastern parliamentarian I have ever witnessed in either house, Senator Nova Scotia where his family settled after emigrating from the MacEachen has been a central player in every major piece of Western Isles 200 years ago. The culture, the language, the progressive social legislation passed through Parliament in the music, the laughter, the friends, and the beauty of the land, that is last three decades. where he draws his strengths. 734 SENATE DEBATES June 19, 1996 Recently, Allan J. said, “I would rather be remembered for the Is that the way it is going to be, with Allan J. having his achievements that I helped to bring about in that part of the second whirl at taxing the rental value of the house you own and country.” Honourable senators, I believe his contributions will be live in? Are we about to enter a time of circumvented déjà vu remembered far beyond Cape Breton Island and Nova Scotia, with Allan J. running once more for the Liberal leadership beyond this Parliament, which he has served so well, and beyond against Trudeau? And this time winning! the Liberal Party of Canada whose ideals he upheld and whose goals he helped to shape. He will be remembered by citizens Honourable senators, when will the question be heard? Does throughout Canada and in other lands where he left his message the Deputy Leader intend closure? When will the vote be held? of compassion, fairness and hope. What of Royal Assent? If Allan J. is back, or indeed has never gone away — and Senator Stewart will certainly quote Those in our Senate caucus thank you, Allan, for giving us and authorities on which way it is to be — whatever; Senator your country so much of yourself. Our respect and our Kinsella will rebut. admiration is exceeded only by our affection. What of the Leader of the Opposition? Steadfast, certainly; In the words of the poet Robert Browning: forthright, certainly. Supportive? Let me answer with an We, that had loved him so, followed him, honoured him, unshakable “maybe,” for I too have my price. Lived in his mild and magnificent eye. Learned his great language, caught his clear accents, Let me hasten to add, colleagues, I would not have a price for Made him our pattern to live and to die. just anyone on the other side. We have to be talking “prime” senator. Honourable senators, that takes a man big enough to Those words may be emotional, slightly excessive, but they are, seek the leadership of his party, wily enough to survive his nonetheless, true. colleagues, wise enough to respects his foes, and cunning enough to second-guess his friends. It takes a man big enough to be We hope you will enjoy an active future of new challenges, trusted with his country’s most important jobs — leadership of good health and continued friendships and, for heaven’s sake, get the House of Commons; and responsibility for such ministries as to work and write a book! finance, health and foreign affairs. It takes a man sufficiently agile to be selected for the leadership of the Senate when it Hon. John Lynch-Staunton (Leader of the Opposition): became his party’s only bastion of leadership on the hill. Honourable senators, in “Julius Caesar,” that fascinating play about what happened one day in another senate, Shakespeare Like an orchestra conductor, Allan J. led his players to tells us to beware the Ides of March. But, as Sheila Copps would perform with as much harmony as one can expect from a Senate say, that was then and this is now. caucus. He himself, however, was never to ring a cow bell, never to play a kazoo and never even to blow a horn. He was generous In this Senate, we should perhaps be more concerned with the enough to let his deputy have full credit for authoring “Hoods on pre-penultimates of June. Certainly in my case, honourable the Hill,” a book about the GST that some people called “Love’s senators, I learned very soon after arriving here to beware the Labour Lost.” pre-penultimates of June, and certain occurrences last week have only increased my apprehension. As I have said, I have my price for supporting a Faustian Surely I am not the only one here to notice that Senator Cools return to the Senate of Senator Allan J. MacEachen, so let me was impeccably correct on Thursday last week when she gave take you back, honourable senators, to June 30, 1987 when notice of her inquiry into the life and times of Allan J. Senator MacEachen made the following statement: MacEachen. Am I the only one in this exalted chamber to be worried about the prospect of a technically correct Cools This is a chamber of sober second thought, whose purpose is inquiring into our lives? Alternatively, what about the technically to examine legislation when the examination in the House incorrect Senator Forrestall, attempting to devise an elected of Commons has been completed.