Former Prime Minister Paul Martin was in Antigonish, Nova Scotia on this date in 2016 to deliver that year’s Allan J. MacEachen Lecture. The latter politician, of course, had been a colleague and friend of Martin’s legendary father, Paul Martin Sr. It was therefore no surprise the former PM started off his address offering a tribute to MacEachen, who was then 95. Martin did so by recalling his own interactions, particularly as a youth, with Allan J.
“His contribution, obviously to this University, but to Antigonish, to Nova Scotia, to Atlantic Canada and to our country, and indeed, when you travel the world, his contribution to so much of that world, is something that we all recognize and I must say, makes me just a little nervous speaking to you. He was one of my father's closest friends” Martin said. “I am here, obviously, because of your very kind invitation, but I am also here because of what I remember and because of my unvarnished admiration for Mr. MacEachen… This is one of Canada's greatest Cabinet Ministers, and every time I would see him in Ottawa, he would say 'Hello Paul.' He is the only person who could remember my name and I will never forget that...”
“One day when he was the Minister of External Affairs, I got on an Air Canada flight and I was looking for my seat, and everyone else had gotten on,” Martin continued. “I was late and looking for my seat and all of a sudden, I heard this voice saying ‘Paul, come over here.’ And I turned around and there was Allan J. and he had an empty seat beside him. He was the Minister of External Affairs, that was in the days before. And he said ‘come and sit down beside me." And so I did. And all the way, I can't remember where we were flying to, we talked foreign policy. You think about this. Here I am, I'm 25 or I'm 26, I'm sitting down beside Canada's Foreign Minister and I'm giving him my opinion on what the world needed. (He didn't follow it.)”
“And then I got home and I told my father that I just talked to him. And I told my father what my opinions were and my father was shocked. He said you can't have said that. He's one of my friends. He's going to repeat this. In any event, I have never forgotten it.”
Martin then concluded his tribute to the great Nova Scotian. “The one other thing that I have never forgotten, and the Chairman said to you that I was going to speak briefly. Well, let me tell you, I'm going to do so because one day when I had gotten into politics I was somewhere with Mr. MacEachen and I gave a speech. And I came down and I was full of myself and I said ‘how was it?’ He said, ‘you're like your father, you speak too long.’ So, I promised, I'm not going to speak too long today.”
You can watch Martin’s entire lecture at this link.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.