Canada’s 18^th Prime Minister always gave credit to the behind-the-scenes role the Queen played when it came to ending apartheid. So, it was no surprise that Mulroney celebrated Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee in 2022.

The 18^th Prime Minister, in fact, argued that the institution the Queen embodied had had much to do with Canada’s envious development as a nation. “The success of Canada – so deeply admired everywhere as a model of civility, fairness, equality and achievement – did not happen by accident,” he said.  “The system of government chosen by our founders had much to do with it – the British parliamentary system led incomparably by the Monarchy.”

You will find below a speech Mulroney gave to the Royal Commonwealth Society’s Toronto gal honouring Her Majesty on her Platinum Jubilee that was delivered on this date in 2022.

The Right Honourable Brian Mulroney: Our Queen has a variety of different responsibilities.  She is at once Elizabeth the Second, Sovereign of 15 unique and diverse countries; each with their own histories, customs, traditions and peoples; she is Queen of Canada, our Head of State, and it is in her name that all laws are enacted and authority is dispersed, and she is Head of the Commonwealth.

Here is a woman who has travelled more than any other head of state ever, met more people, been photographed more frequently and appeared on more postage stamps and coins than anyone in world history.  Impressive though this accounting may be, it is Her Majesty’s devotion to service and to others which has been the most compelling and impressive hallmark of her adult life. It harkens back to that sunny afternoon in South Africa where in 1947 she proclaimed: “I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service.”

As the longest serving Head of State in Canada’s modern history, indeed the only monarch 80 percent of Canadians have known, she has come to understand this country like no other person.

It is fitting that we are gathering here in Toronto at the Royal York this evening to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee – 70 years as Queen of Canada and Head of the Commonwealth.  It was during Her Majesty’s 1973 Royal Tour, which included the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Ottawa, that our Sovereign was also invited to tour Toronto to see the changes that had transformed the city into a modern and multicultural showcase.  It was here at the Royal York on June 26, 1973, that my old friend Premier Bill Davis hosted Her Majesty to a dinner in honour of her first visit to the provincial capital since 1959.

In replying to Premier Davis’s loyal and endearing welcome, Her Majesty made a few observations which, in the Canadian context, encapsulate her ethos of service and dedication as our Head of State:

“It is as Queen of Canada that I am here, and Queen of Canada and of all Canadians, not just of one or two ancestral strains.  I would like the Crown to be seen as a symbol of national sovereignty belonging to all.”

Her Majesty then went on to reflect on the institution which she heads, something that she has rarely done in any of her Realms during her long and distinguished reign.  Her words offer a special perspective of her understanding of the position of the Crown in Canadian life and society, and her own role in supporting each of us as members of the broader Canadian family:

“The Crown is an idea more than a person and I want the Crown in Canada to represent everything that is best and most admired in the Canadian ideal.  I will continue to do my best to make it so during my lifetime…”

There is much I could say about Elizabeth the Second: Veteran of the Second World War, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, selfless servant of a great institution and remarkable person, are all appropriate.  But it is to her role as Head of the Commonwealth I now wish to turn.

Just as Canada has transformed over the course of Her Majesty’s reign, so too has the Commonwealth undergone a most remarkable evolution.  It is an organization that I have seen in action in the promotion of democracy and human rights.  It is in her role as Head of the Commonwealth that I witnessed The Queen deftly navigate the international stage like few others.  Throughout her long reign, there is scarcely a territory she has not visited or a head of government she has not known – which makes her uniquely effective among world leaders, as none can claim such a personal knowledge of the world and its peoples.

The abolition of apartheid and establishment of majority rule in South Africa was a signal moment in the life of the Commonwealth, that international, multicultural and expansive collection of countries that includes more than a third of the world population – 54 countries and 2.5 billion people.  It put on display the hard work that had commenced with Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s own efforts towards racial equality and democracy in the Commonwealth more than 30 years before when he led the effort to expel South Africa from the Commonwealth because of its odious, discriminatory and morally unacceptable policy of apartheid that allowed a white minority to dominate all aspects of human existence, while crushing entirely the legitimate hopes and aspirations of the black majority.

It was also directly linked with the efforts undertaken by my Government and other Commonwealth countries throughout the 1980s and the 1990s to place strong and comprehensive economic, political and social sanctions on South Africa.  Throughout all of it, Her Majesty was a constant and positive force.  In fact, success would never have been achieved without the discreet, gentle and persuasive leadership of Her Majesty, the Queen.

And so, on my arrival in Nassau for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in September 1985, in a gesture that spoke volumes about Canada’s stature in the Commonwealth, the Queen invited me to a private meeting and personally asked me to work with other leaders to prevent a major and some thought, imminent split within the group.  I assured Her Majesty that Canada would do everything in its power to prevent that from happening.  But there was a sense in the air that we were facing a major crisis.  In my opening remarks I warned that “we must be aware that the effectiveness of the Commonwealth will be judged against the challenges of major current issues.  An urgent case in point is, of course, South Africa”, the festering and explosive situation there with a white population of approximately 4 million holding 30 million non-whites in a state of humiliating and destructive servitude.  The apartheid regime was in full command and Nelson Mandela was in the process of serving some 27 years in prison.

Her Majesty knew of course of Prime Minister Diefenbaker’s initiative at the 1961 Commonwealth meeting and was fully aware of my government’s decisions a year earlier to place the liberation of Mandela and the destruction of the apartheid system at the very top of our foreign policy agenda.  In the execution of this plan over the years, Foreign Minister Joe Clark was to play a highly significant role.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other African National Congress (ANC) leaders in exile had come to see me early on in my first term and told me that Canada could play a very influential leadership role in ending the ongoing calamitous situation in South Africa because it was a largely white, wealthy, respected industrialized country that was member of the G7, the Commonwealth, La Francophonie and the United Nations, thereby in a position to influence much of the industrialized world’s attitudes and activity in this regard.

Archbishop Tutu turned out to be right because in 1987-1988 Canada chaired the Commonwealth meetings in Vancouver, the Francophonie in Québec City and the G7 in Toronto and I was therefore able to influence both the agendas and the outcomes in favor of our objectives in South Africa.

Prime Minister Thatcher was a firm opponent of apartheid, but she did not agree with the general strategy developed in Nassau, by Prime Ministers Ghandi of India, Hawke of Australia, Pindling of the Bahamas, Presidents Kaunda of Zambia, Mugabe of Zimbabwe and myself.  As a result, I had a number of major disagreements with Mrs. Thatcher as she fought to defend her own national interest while, as Commonwealth Chairman, I looked for a formula that would find favor with all Commonwealth members, the African National Congress and Nelson Mandela himself.

In spite of our strong disagreements at that time, Mrs. Thatcher and I remained very close friends until her death.

We pursued that strategy, amended from time to time over some years, overcoming deep opposition in many quarters and ending only on that glorious day in 1990 when Nelson Mandela walked out of prison into the sunlight of freedom and with the subsequent political victories that saw him elected President of the Republic of a democratic, non-racial, multicultural South Africa, thereby ending the egregious, criminal and brutal policy of apartheid forever.

Canada’s outstanding ambassador to the United Nations, Stephen Lewis waged a major complementary battle in that forum in New York and over many years developed a close friendship with Mandela and his second wife Graça Machel.

Reporting in the Toronto Star in 2013 on his recent visits to South Africa and private conversations with Mandela, Lewis wrote: “For Mandela, Canada was the indispensable key to his freedom.  And, in his eyes, the man who turned the key was Brian Mulroney.”

If I was able to do this, it was only because of the overwhelming support I received on this issue from the people of Canada and the unfailing encouragement and gentle but unerring guidance I received throughout from Queen Elizabeth II.      As one who has had the privilege of a significant relationship with Her Majesty for many years, I can simply say this: She is extremely intelligent, a woman of impeccable judgement, resolute, selfless, witty and kind.

Events around the world tell us regularly of violence, political coups, and instability, ordinary people in sorrow and distress, as their countries descend into war, devastation and ruin.

Compare that with Canada, in two weeks 155 years old: strong, proud, prosperous, united and serene – with setbacks and challenges of course, but largely unaffected by the major spasms of social and political discontent that have destroyed so many other countries around the world.

The success of Canada – so deeply admired everywhere as a model of civility, fairness, equality and achievement – did not happen by accident.  The system of government chosen by our founders had much to do with it – the British parliamentary system led incomparably by the Monarchy.

Today, our system might appear anachronistic to some.  I understand that.  But to others – who constitute the overwhelming majority of Canadians – the role of the monarchy and in particular the irreplaceable role of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II for 70 years, has been absolutely indispensable in our country’s hugely impressive, achievements and contributions to peace, prosperity and stability at home and around the world.

In 1990, the Queen was in Canada again during a tense time, in the aftermath of the rejection of the Meech Lake Accord.  In a speech on Parliament Hill for Canada Day, she said “I am not a fair-weather friend, and I am glad to be here at this sensitive time.  I hope my presence may call to mind those many years of shared experience and raise new hopes for the future.  The unity of the Canadian people was the paramount issue in 1867 as it is today.  There is no force except the force of will to keep Canadians together.”

So spoke a person whose brilliant contributions over seven decades have done so much to sustain and elevate the golden concepts of freedom, liberty and democracy both here and around the world and have brought such honor to Canada and all of her people.

God save the Queen.