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House Hansard - 291

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 19, 2024 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 291 - Mar/19/24
Mr. Chris Warkentin (Grande Prairie—Mackenzie, CPC)
  • Mar/19/24 8:24:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my riding name is Grande Prairie—Mackenzie now, but when I was first elected it was the riding of Peace River. When I was running for the nomination in that riding, a larger riding than the one I currently represent, I called my predecessor's predecessor. It was a guy by the name of Albert Cooper. It was a bit of a cold call because I did not know Albert. I knew my parents had met him during his time serving as a member of Parliament. I knew his reputation. He was a guy engaged in business. He owned an airline at the time. I made a cold call to him and said, “Albert, would you mind if I dropped by and give you my pitch? I would like to become the member of Parliament for a riding.” I was a young guy. Interestingly, I was a very similar age to the age Albert was when he was first elected. Albert took the time to meet with me. We got to visiting and Albert talked about his time as a member of Parliament. Having been elected first in 1984 and then in 1988, Albert had remarkable stories. He had stories of his leader, the guy who Albert, whom I just spoke to on the phone, credits as the strongest leader and the most incredible leader he has had the privilege to serve under and work with. Albert told me in those stories that Brian Mulroney was a remarkable guy who had an incredible ability to connect with caucus in ways that no other leader or, it seemed, no other human had ever figured out how to do. When Albert's son was born, flowers were delivered to the Peace River hospital. When someone had a sick aunt or a grandma who had health difficulties, Brian just seemed to know. He would pick up the phone, call and have that human connection. Those were interesting stories, and over the years that followed, every time I would visit with Albert, he would have good instruction for me as a member of Parliament, as a young guy getting into the business, both personal and professional. Every single time we met, there were stories of Brian Mulroney. Those loomed large in my head. As a young Albertan member of Parliament, I tried to reconcile them with some of my earliest remembrances of watching the news with politicians debating and hearing the stories of the great Brian Mulroney, who, of course, was not immune to controversy during my young life. As a matter of fact, Albert mentioned to me today that it was often Brian's humour that would get him into trouble because he was so often able to bring up a joke but it did not always land the way he intended. That is the danger with humour, and I wish that was not the case for those of us who are elected, because if we had more of that, I think we would all be a bit more human and could all survive in this business a lot better. Canadians would be better served by that. These stories continue to bang around in my head, and it would have been about five years into my service as a member of Parliament that I was up in the dining room of the Centre Block dining hall, the parliamentary dining room. I was sitting there with the guy who went on to be Alberta's finance minister, Travis Toews, who was at that point the president of the Cattlemen's Association. We were having a great lunch, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Jim Flaherty, the finance minister at the time and a good friend of mine, was getting up from a table and I realized that he had been dining with Brian Mulroney. Having never met Brian Mulroney and seeing that they were going to pass right by my table, I decided to stand up and honour the former prime minister. I stood up and barely got the words “Hello, Mr. Prime Minister” out of my mouth when he said, “Christopher Warkentin”. I was somewhat startled and he said, “I have been watching you in your work as the chair of the aboriginal affairs committee, and I want to tell you how remarkable I think you are.” He heaped on all kinds of compliments. He went on to talk about the importance of being a member of Parliament, but also of being a Conservative member of Parliament, and how important it was, at that time, to have strong men and women who could stand up and be in different roles within Parliament. He paid tribute to what I thought was a smaller role in our Parliament at that time. He then went on to learn about my family and to talk about what an important thing family was and how important it was for him. He finally decided that it was time to move on. I would have talked to him all day. I did not want to take up the rest of his afternoon. I would have loved to sit there, but I wanted to respect his time. He was willing to continue to talk to me until he was done, and he finished his message by telling me how important family was. He then thanked me for serving and thanked my family for letting me serve. Today, as we reflect on the great Brian Mulroney, there are so many stories like that. As a matter of fact, when Brian finally moved on, Travis Toews looked across the table and said that he did not know I was such good friends with Brian Mulroney, to which I said this was the first time I had ever met him. He was struck by the fact that Brian not only knew something of what my career had been, but spent so much time building up the importance of that role. He encouraged me to continue in that role and spent so much time ensuring that I recognized the importance of family. As we now move past and reflect on Brian's time, we want to thank him for his service. We want to thank his family for their service and their willingness to share their dad with us as a country. To Mila, Mark, Caroline, Nicolas and Ben, we say thanks for sharing their dad in building our country. We know that Brian encouraged us to know the importance of our family because he knew the importance of his family. On behalf of all Canadians, we want to thank them for sharing their dad. We want to thank Brian for his service. We want to let his family know that our thoughts and prayers are with them as they go through this difficult time of saying goodbye. May he rest in peace.
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