Tributes for Gord Brown

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Question Period was cancelled today upon news that Conservative MP Gord Brown had died of a heart attack in his office earlier in the morning. MPs assembled in the House of Commons as they usually do, but rather than members’ statements, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer stood to pay tribute to Brown.

Scheer noted that he and Brown were both elected in 2004, and were both long-time volunteers going back to the PC Youth in Ontario. At the start of the current parliament, Brown was appointed whip by interim leader Rona Ambrose, while Scheer had been named House Leader, and they shared the same suite of offices. After Brown’s staff got him a bull whip as a joke, Scheer would often hear Brown crack it.

“I was always worried he was going to hurt himself,” Scheer quipped.

Scheer noted that as whip, Brown wanted to ensure that members of caucus supported one another on a personal level and not just a professional one. He also noted that while the wanted Brown at an event last week, Brown didn’t make it because he had a date night scheduled with his wife, Claudine, which he intended to keep, and Scheer said that now, he was glad that Brown made that choice. Scheer noted that Brown’s love of hockey, and that he was captain of their caucus hockey team, and also mentioned Brown’s recent work on behalf of Thalidomide survivors.

Wayne Easter gave the tribute on behalf of the Liberal caucus, noting that he got to know Brown on the Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group. He regaled that during one meeting between premiers and governors on PEI, that he offered to show Brown around the island, and Brown accepted, despite the fact that he the mode of transport was Easter’s bright red truck. Easter mentioned that Brown had successfully passed a bill in 2013 to change the name of the St. Lawrence Islands National Park to the Thousand Islands National Park, and that Brown was a strong ambassador to Canadian issues with US lawmakers, even that he played with the Republican hockey team in Washington, and was considered their “ringer.”

NDP MP Brian Masse gave the tribute for the NDP, noting that he was proud to get to know him personally and professionally, and that they became friends. Masse said that while Brown had strong beliefs, he was not an ideologue, and that they worked well together on the Canada-US Inter-Parliamentary Group. He also offered a hockey tale, from the days when the NDP fielded a hockey team and that Brown beat them badly (and Masse noted that as the goalie, he blamed the ownership), and that the team disbanded shortly thereafter. 

Rhéal Fortin spoke for the ex-Bloc “Quebec Parliamentary Group,” noting that they were all brought together by their calling to public service, and he thanked Brown for his 14 years of public life in Ottawa.

Xavier Barsalou-Duval spoke for the remaining Bloc MPs (all two of them), saying that life is fragile and that they are all mortal, and he saluted the courage of the man who dedicated his life to his fellow citizens.

Elizabeth May, voice shaking, spoke of her deep shock, and that she was grateful for getting to know Brown over the past seven years. She noted that Brown wasn’t so partisan that they couldn’t be friends, and that when he chaired the Heritage committee, he would give her room to speak even though she wasn’t a member of the committee. May also said that while there is a tendency to hagiography when someone passes, in this case, they were not exaggerating Brown’s virtues or eliminating his faults – no one could have a bad thing to say about him, and that there was no greater tribute in politics than to be universally well-loved by colleagues.

After a moment of silence, Government House Leader Bardish Chagger moved to adjourn the Commons, which was granted. As the Speaker left the chair, MPs got up to mill across the aisle to give condolences to Conservatives for their loss.

On a personal note, Brown was the MP at my table at Politics & the Pen last year, along with his wife Claudine, and it was a lovely evening, and that I was glad to have gotten to know him.