Brian Mulroney was a family man whose stamp on the country is ‘chiselled in stone’, his son remembers

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For four days this week, Brian Mulroney’s family stood beside the late prime minister’s casket, first in Ottawa and then in Montreal, greeting strangers and dignitaries alike as they came to say goodbye to a titan of Canadian politics.

That gesture has become the enduring symbol of his lying in state on Parliament Hill and lying in repose in Montreal’s St. Patrick’s Basilica: his wife, Mila, at the head of the Mulroney clan, all clad in black.

“My mom just said, ‘I don’t want to leave your dad. I want to stay close to him,’ ’' said Mark Mulroney, the third of four children born to Mila and Brian.

“And my mom is standing there, so we are standing there.”

In an interview from Montreal on Thursday, Mark said he has long become used to strangers stopping him on the street to share stories about his father, but since Mr. Mulroney’s death on Feb. 29, the outpouring of support is far beyond what the family expected and a testament to his far-reaching legacy.

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“Greeting people and hugging people and shaking their hands, it feels so right for the man that we are all standing by,” he said.

The deluge of people include everyone from Mr. Mulroney’s security guard, to a stranger who flew in from Vancouver, to a man who said he acknowledged his mistake in not voting for the prime minister when he was running.

By Thursday evening, almost 3,000 people in Ottawa and Montreal had come to pay their respects, with members of the Mulroney family greeting each and every one of them.

Former Quebec premier and Mulroney-era federal cabinet minister Jean Charest said in an interview that the family’s generosity with the public shows a “straight line” to the values instilled by Mr. Mulroney and his wife.

“They’re going to be there until the end, because there is a sense of duty throughout that – and joy,” Mr. Charest said.

The public ceremonies for Canada’s 18th prime minister will culminate on Saturday with a state funeral at Montreal’s Notre-Dame Basilica. The list of people giving eulogies shows the heights that the boy from Baie-Comeau, Que., reached.

His eldest child and only daughter, Caroline Mulroney, will speak for the family. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will also give a eulogy, followed by media mogul Pierre Karl Péladeau, hockey great Wayne Gretzky, former U.S. secretary of state James Baker and, finally, Mr. Charest, his long-time political ally.

Prime Minister Trudeau and other party leaders pay tribute to Brian Mulroney

Mr. Mulroney, prime minister from 1984 to 1993, died at the age of 84.

His funeral will be led by the Archbishop of Montreal, Christian Lépine, and Miguel Castellanos, rector of Notre-Dame Basilica.

The former prime minister secured historic achievements in politics: winning the largest majority government in Canadian history, striking a free-trade deal and an acid-rain treaty, leading the Commonwealth’s fight against apartheid and being the first Western government to recognize Ukrainian independence.

However, his determination to bring Quebec into the Constitution and perceived slights toward Western Canada sowed discord and led to the rise of the Bloc Québécois and the Reform Party. Amid a series of controversies and the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax, his popularity plummeted and he quit shortly before the 1993 election that reduced his Progressive Conservative Party to two seats – from which it never recovered.

His death last month transcended the typically polarized and partisan Ottawa bubble, with politicians of all stripes praising his ability to take risks and attempt ambitious, even unpopular projects, for the greater good.

Beyond those skills, everyone from backbench MPs to premiers and party leaders have remembered Mr. Mulroney as a warm, caring man who always called in difficult times and had a great sense of humour.

“I think that people are starting to find out that Brian Mulroney, the father, and Brian Mulroney, the man, were one in the same,” said his son, Mark. “He gave exactly the same type of emotion and love to people that he had just met.”

That kindness went beyond politics, Mr. Charest said. The former prime minister understood that while there is much in political life that you can’t control, by virtue of his office, he could always reach out to people and lift them up.

“He had a very noble character,” Mr. Charest said. “Throughout his life, it was very important if you were elected to try to be the most generous person in the room.”

Brian Mulroney was a man of quiet kindnesses

The former premier said the family’s closeness is a testament to Mr. Mulroney and Mila’s ability to navigate political life and family life in which one did not come at the expense of the other.

That was in part accomplished by his parents’ open-door policy, Mark said. He and his siblings were always prioritized and they were allowed to, and even expected to, interrupt meetings, whether it was with the U.S. president, caucus or a close friend.

“My parents said, ‘we’re in politics, you’re with us,’ ” he said.

“They always let us be part of their lives, but also made us feel so special and that’s really the one thing I remember from that age of four to 14, when we were in politics.”

Soon after he left government, Mr. Mulroney was hit by scandal over his relationship with arms dealer Karlheinz Schreiber, but revived his reputation in part through his continued work in Canada-U.S. relations.

He was actively involved in helping Mr. Trudeau’s government navigate the Donald Trump administration and the NAFTA renegotiation and helped keep back-channel communications open between the two governments.

The lasting impact of free trade epitomizes Mr. Mulroney’s mantra that while in government, he was working for the next generation – not the next day’s headlines.

A generation later, his son says the outpouring from Canadians is proving his father right.

“A lot of things were said about my dad and about his legacy, but it is fully intact, and it is chiselled in stone.”