Speech

From the Prime Minister's Web Site (http://www.pm.gc.ca/)

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PRIME MINISTER HARPER CONGRATULATES FORMER PRIME MINISTER BRIAN MULRONEY ON AWARD AT UKRAINIAN TRIBUTE DINNER

April 18, 2007
Ottawa, Ontario

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Thank you, James Temerty, for that kind introduction.

Good evening,

Ambassador Ihor Ostash,

Madam Orisya Sushko,

Fellow parliamentarians,

Ladies and gentlemen,

And, of course, your guest of honour, the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney.

I am delighted to be here with you this evening to pay tribute to a man who is increasingly recognized for all his achievements as Prime Minister.

That's the way it is with real, effective leaders.

While in office, they set clear goals.

Then they remain true to these objectives, seeing them through against attacks motivated by misunderstanding, misinformation or just plain old political opportunism.

And, in due time, they are recognized and rewarded.

So it is with Brian Mulroney.

He is the first Prime Minister who defended free trade.

At the time he was vilified for the free trade deal.

But history will remember him as the leader who set Canada on a path to unprecedented economic growth and prosperity.

He is also the Prime Minister who took action on acid rain and invested billions of dollars in environmental research.

His environmental initiatives won him no credit from the left or right, at the time.

But now he's remembered as Canada's greenest Prime Minister, by no less than the current leader of federal Green Party.

And this is the Prime Minister who came to power in 1984, five years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, determined to restore Canada's reputation as a reliable ally in the struggle against communist tyranny.

At the time, there were many who said Canada shouldn't take a stand.

They said we should be neutral – an "honest broker."

They said we should learn to live with communism – that we had nothing to fear from the Soviet empire.

Brian Mulroney disagreed. Under his leadership, Canada took a stand.

We stood against oppression in Ukraine and elsewhere.

We stood for freedom and fundamental human rights.

We stood with the brave people of Ukraine, of the Baltic republics, and the other captive nations of Central and Eastern Europe.

Today they are free people living in free nations.

And they are grateful to the strong Western leaders who stood firm against the communists and their apologists.

Leaders like Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, John-Paul the Second, and Brian Mulroney.

Which is what brings us here today.

When Ukraine broke free of the Soviet Union in 1991, Mr. Mulroney's Conservative government was the first in the West to recognize her independence.

It was only fitting.

No Western country has closer ties to Ukraine than Canada.

A century ago, when settlers from all over the world were pouring into our vast western prairies, Ukrainians were one of the largest immigrant groups.

Between 130,000 and 170,000 arrived around the dawn of the 20th century.

"The men in sheepskin coats," they were called, though there were, of course, as many women as men.

They homesteaded on land that was a lot like the steppes back home.

Often they endured terrible hardships, but they built farms, families and communities and made enormous contributions to the social and economic development of the rural Canadian West.

There are over a million Canadians of Ukrainian heritage today, and they have made their mark in every part of Canada, in every field of endeavour.

They include Premier Ed Stelmach of Alberta, former governor general Ray Hnatyshyn, Senators Raynell Andreychuk and David Tkachuk, Canadian astronaut Roberta Bondar, the late Supreme Court justice John Sopinka, and more great NHL hockey players than I could possibly name.

Brian Mulroney appreciated the unique relationship between Canada and Ukraine.

After the Ukrainian declaration of independence in August, 1991, the question of whether Canada should recognize the liberated nation came before his Cabinet.

Some officials recommended against it, timidly suggesting we wait to see what other Western countries did.

But the Prime Minister was adamant: ever since John Diefenbaker, he said, our Conservative party has supported freedom and democracy for Ukraine. We're not about to renege on that commitment now. We're going to support it!

And so we did.

As the first Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Anatoly Zlenko, noted in a 2001 speech, and I quote:
"The people of Ukraine will always remember that Canada was the first Western country to give Ukraine official recognition … figures alone cannot convey the significance of Canadian aid in connection with many vital issues."

You can rest assured, ladies and gentlemen, that Canada's New Government will uphold this tradition.

We will support Ukraine's right to determine her own destiny, without interference from outside interests.

Because Ukrainians, like all people, are entitled to freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

These are the core values of all civilized nations.

The values on which Canada was founded.

The values Canadians have defended throughout our history.

From the battle of Vimy Ridge in the First World War, to the battle against terrorism in Afghanistan today, Canadians are recognized worldwide as defenders of freedom.

That's why we welcomed hundreds of thousands of refugees from communism during the 20th century.

And that's why Canada's New Government has taken the international lead in cutting off support for terrorist-led governments, condemning state-sanctioned human rights abuses wherever they occur, and declaring support for democratic nations whenever they are threatened.

That is our commitment to Ukraine and all the nascent democracies that bloomed after the fall of communism.

Freedom is the touchstone of the shared history of Ukraine and Canada.

That's what Ukrainians found here when they came by the thousands a century ago.

That's what Canada championed for Ukrainians when the Soviet Union collapsed.

And that's what President Yushchenko has honoured by awarding Mr. Mulroney the Order of King Yaroslav the Wise.

And it is now my great pleasure to introduce our guest of honour, the 18th Prime Minister of Canada,

The Right Honourable Brian Mulroney.

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