Former NDP leader Ed Broadbent is being remembered as a compassionate champion for Canadians who left his country in a better place.
State funeral held in Ottawa for Broadbent, who died Jan. 11 at the age of 87
Catharine Tunney · CBC News
·
Ed Broadbent ‘made it clear that I belonged,’ Jagmeet Singh says at funeral
Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh spoke about how former NDP leader Ed Broadbent made him feel welcome after taking the reins as party leader. ‘You’re still who I want to be when I grow up,’ Singh said at Broadbent’s state funeral on Sunday.
Former NDP leader Ed Broadbent is being remembered as a “a relentless force for good” who made his country a better place by those who gathered in downtown Ottawa on Sunday to say goodbye to the political giant.
Broadbent, who led the New Democrats for 14 years and through four elections, died on Jan. 11 at the age of 87. He was laid to rest during a state funeral on Sunday in Ottawa — a rarity for an opposition leader.
“Mr. Broadbent’s smiling, joyful legacy is an example we ought to learn from today,” Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew told the hundreds of people who attended the service in person.
“That we can use good means to achieve good ends; that we don’t have to appeal to our darkest impulses; that we can have faith in our fellow Canadians.”
Kinew, the first First Nations premier of a Canadian province, highlighted Broadbent’s dedication to Indigenous rights and environmental justice, as well as his “undying passion for the blue collar.”
“Ed was a relentless force for good,” he said.
Kinew remarked that Broadbent’s foes remember him as someone who fought passionately but never personally.
“It wasn’t just about achieving good things, he was about pursuing them with a good nature,” Kinew said. “This was his politics of joy.”
WATCH | Manitoba premier praises Ed Broadbent’s ‘smiling, joyful legacy’:
Wab Kinew praises Ed Broadbent’s ‘smiling, joyful legacy’
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, speaking at the state funeral of former federal NDP leader Ed Broadbent, said he hopes that ‘more of our leaders speak to us Canadians the way Mr. Broadbent did.’
In an emotional address federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh recounted his conversations with his mentor.
“He wanted me to do a lot more, and a lot faster — very New Democrat of him,” he said. “And he also wanted to make sure we never let the Liberals off the hook, also very New Democrat of him.”
Choking back tears, Singh said it’s still hard for him to accept that those conversations are at an end.
“We are so fortunate that he chose to spend his life in pursuit of his vision and his hope of justice and fairness for all,” he said. “We will never forget him, and Ed, we won’t let you down. And you’re still who I want to be when I grow up.”
Speaking before the ceremony at the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Broadbent was a “tireless campaigner for social justice.”
“Canada is significantly better for his years of service, both in politics and out of it,” he said.
Broadbent pushed party
Born in Oshawa, Ont., Broadbent spent two decades in the House of Commons and remained active in public policy afterwards by launching the Broadbent Institute policy think-tank.
While leading the NDP from 1975-89, Broadbent focused on pocketbook issues and pushed his party to a then-unprecedented first place in the polls, making the NDP a politically viable alternative to the Liberal and Conservative parties.
In the 1988 election — a bitter campaign fought over the free trade deal — he pushed the party to the brink of a breakthrough with 43 seats. That made Broadbent the NDP’s most successful leader ever — a title he’d hold until Layton’s “orange wave” election in 2011.
During Broadbent’s tenure, he faced off against four different prime ministers, including Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney, John Turner and Joe Clark, who was seated in the front row at the funeral, next to Trudeau, on Sunday.
In recorded remarks played at the funeral, Mulroney, one of Broadbent’s chief political opponents in the 1980s, called him a “giant in the Canadian political scene.”
“I consider him a great parliamentarian and a major contributor to Canadian progress during the decade or the decade and a half we were together,” he said.
“And he was an extremely pleasant, delightful guy to know.”
Broadbent acted as an elder statesman for NDP
After failing to realize his dream of forming the Official Opposition or government, Broadbent stepped down in 1989. But he was lured back more than a decade later by Layton and won the Ottawa Centre riding in 2004.
He remained a respected elder statesman for the NDP and, along with former prime minister Jean Chrétien, helped to negotiate the formal coalition agreement between the Liberals and the New Democratic Party to replace Stephen Harper’s Conservative government in 2008. The coalition talks died after then governor general Michaëlle Jean prorogued Parliament at Harper’s request in December 2008.
State funerals are usually limited to current and former governors general, prime ministers and cabinet ministers, but a sitting prime minister can order one for any eminent Canadian.
In announcing a state funeral for Broadbent, the Prime Minister’s Office called him a “much-loved national figure” and said he was being honoured for “shaping the country’s political landscape.”
Broadbent is just the second opposition leader in Canadian history — and the first who did not die while still in office — to be given a state funeral. Former prime minister Stephen Harper offered Jack Layton’s family a state funeral after the NDP leader died at age 61 in August 2011, following a battle with cancer.
Flags on all Government of Canada buildings across the country, including the Peace Tower, are being flown at half-mast from sunrise to sunset on Sunday.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Catharine Tunney is a reporter with CBC’s Parliament Hill bureau, where she covers national security and the RCMP. She worked previously for CBC in Nova Scotia. You can reach her at catharine.tunney@cbc.ca
