By: Sivan Ilangko
Hon. Bian Mulroney was a distinguished businessman, lawyer, stateman who was elected as the eighteenth Prime Minister of Canada in 1984. He served the country for almost 9 years in that capacity with so much passion and dignity. He is widely considered as one of the most prominent persons in Canadian history and most admired former Prime Minster of Canada. In 2021, he was also selected by a group of 50 prominent Canadians and Americans as the top ranked prime ministers and presidents of the last 100 years in the area of Canada-U.S. relations along with President Ronald Regan President George H. W. Bush. He died on February 29, 2024, at the age of 84 in Palm Beach, Florida, United States.
For Tamil Canadians, Mr. Mulroney is held in high regard and a special place in their hearts due to his actions when 155 Tamil refugees landed on the shores of Newfoundland in 1986. The late Capt. Gus Dalton (a recipient of the Canadian Tamil Congress’s Leaders for Change Award) and his crew rescued and brought them ashore. The Tamil boat peoples’ arrival was not without controversy, as there was pressure on the Mulroney government to deport them. As the controversy heated up, Prime Minister Mulroney muted those who called for the return of the refugees back to Sri Lanka where they would have faced persecution. He was unequivocal and he spoke for all Canadians when he told the national media “we are not in the business of turning away refugees”. Within days, all of the 155 Tamils were settled in Montreal and Toronto, where they started careers, families and new lives. This single act has changed the lives of many Tamils whose population in Canada is over 300,000 now.
Hon. Mulroney was born in Baie-Comeau, Quebec on March 20, 1939. In 1973, he married Mila Pivnicki and both have four children. He attended St. Thomas College high school, Chatham, New Brunswick He obtained his undergraduate degree from St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia and a law degree from Université Laval in Quebec City. In September 2019, St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia inaugurated the Brian Mulroney Institute of Government, a one hundred-million-dollar initiative designed to provide undergraduates – sustained by a large scholarship program – with degrees in public policy and government. He practiced law in before entering politics and after resignation as Prime Minister.
Hon. Mulroney was presented with several awards, including Canada’s highest honor, Companion of the Order of Canada, the highest honor of the Government of Quebec, Grand officier de l’Ordre national du Québec, Global Citizen Award by the United Nations Association in Canada, George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service, International Environment Bureau Award for “outstanding and responsible leadership on both global and national environmental policies and issues. He will be missed by all Canadians.
