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GANANOQUE — Politicians, old friends, family members and the community he loved gave Gord Brown a home-ice sendoff on Thursday.
Some 1,500 mourners packed the floor of the Lou Jeffries Recreation Centre on Thursday for the funeral of the Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes MP, who died suddenly at age 57 of a heart attack in his Ottawa office on May 2.
The service, which drew parliamentarians from Brown’s Conservative Party and from parties across the aisle, was at times solemn, often humorous and sometimes touching.
“I’m glad that memories last forever. If a million years goes by I will never forget my dad and the time we had to spend with him,” Brown’s son, Chance, told the crowd.
“Goodbye Dad. I love you. You made the world a better place.”
In the service’s most heart-wrenching moment, he then picked up his little brother, Tristan, who asked everyone to say goodbye to his dad.
Late MP Gord Brown’s sons Chance, left, and Tristan speak at his funeral in Gananoque on Thursday May 10 2018. Ian MacAlpine/Kingston Whig-Standard
Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, who like Brown was first elected to Parliament in 2004, recalled their time together in the Tory caucus.
“A loss like this one, one that was so sudden, and of someone who had been such a big part of the family for so many years, hits us all very hard,” said Scheer.
While Brown earned the respect and friendship of people across party lines, the MP was also fiercely partisan, his leader said.
“He was intensely partisan, but he was never personal about it,” said Scheer.
“He was always fighting for the things that he believed in and always a huge booster of his own party, but he recognized that the people in other political parties were doing the very same thing, fighting for the issues that they believed in and fighting for their team and he respected that.”
Scheer also credited Brown for playing an integral role in helping the Conservatives transition from government to Opposition following their defeat to the Trudeau Liberals in 2015.
Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes MP Gord Brown.
“Gord in his position of whip, really did whip us all into shape and reminded us of the fact that we weren’t sent back to Opposition to mope or feel sorry for ourselves,” said Scheer.
Former senator and longtime MPP Bob Runciman recalled his decades of association with Brown, going back to the latter’s Young Progressive Conservatives days.
“From 1981 on, Gord worked on all of my provincial campaigns, and from 2000 on I worked on all of his,” said Runciman, who called Brown a “trailblazer in the effort to unite Conservatives.
“Gord wanted to attend every ribbon-cutting in the riding, and as a result I felt I had to be there too,” he joked. “The guy was exhausting me.”
While he was low-key in public, Brown pushed behind the scenes for such things as Rideau Canal operating hours, the expansion of the Port of Johnstown or funding for the Gananoque Boat Museum, said Runciman.
“Gord knew who to talk to and he did not give up,” he added.
Steve Clark, who is running for re-election as the local MPP, paid joking tribute to the recent proliferation of Gord Brown campaign signs repurposed to say “Thank You.”
“Gord was a winner on this ice, he was a winner in the political arena, and if he was here today he would remind me that he’s winning the sign war in Gananoque over me, and he would take great delight in doing that,” said Clark.
The list of Brown’s accomplishments is “massive,” said Clark.
“You can go to every corner of this riding and see a community and a person that Gord Brown has touched in a positive way,” he added.
Brown’s brother, Jeff, listed Brown’s athletic, business and community achievements, including his “visionary” role in the creation of the Thousand Islands Accommodation Partners.
Hockey had a large role in Gord Brown’s life — he had two assists in the game he played the morning he died — and the presiding minister, Rev. Carl Emke of Grace United Church, added an early moment of levity when he noted Brown’s pallbearers were all wearing pins with the logo of his beloved Toronto Maple Leafs.
“Gord had said that he wanted his pallbearers to represent the Maple Leafs, and that is the reason they are wearing Maple Leaf pins, because he wanted to recognize that the Maple Leafs would let him down for the last time,” said Emke. “He loved to laugh, and he would love to see us laugh this morning.”
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Some 1,500 mourners packed the floor of the Lou Jeffries Recreation Centre on Thursday for the funeral of the Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes MP, who died suddenly at age 57 of a heart attack in his Ottawa office on May 2.
The service, which drew parliamentarians from Brown’s Conservative Party and from parties across the aisle, was at times solemn, often humorous and sometimes touching.
“I’m glad that memories last forever. If a million years goes by I will never forget my dad and the time we had to spend with him,” Brown’s son, Chance, told the crowd.
“Goodbye Dad. I love you. You made the world a better place.”
In the service’s most heart-wrenching moment, he then picked up his little brother, Tristan, who asked everyone to say goodbye to his dad.
Late MP Gord Brown’s sons Chance, left, and Tristan speak at his funeral in Gananoque on Thursday May 10 2018. Ian MacAlpine/Kingston Whig-Standard
Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, who like Brown was first elected to Parliament in 2004, recalled their time together in the Tory caucus.
“A loss like this one, one that was so sudden, and of someone who had been such a big part of the family for so many years, hits us all very hard,” said Scheer.
While Brown earned the respect and friendship of people across party lines, the MP was also fiercely partisan, his leader said.
“He was intensely partisan, but he was never personal about it,” said Scheer.
“He was always fighting for the things that he believed in and always a huge booster of his own party, but he recognized that the people in other political parties were doing the very same thing, fighting for the issues that they believed in and fighting for their team and he respected that.”
Scheer also credited Brown for playing an integral role in helping the Conservatives transition from government to Opposition following their defeat to the Trudeau Liberals in 2015.
Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes MP Gord Brown.
“Gord in his position of whip, really did whip us all into shape and reminded us of the fact that we weren’t sent back to Opposition to mope or feel sorry for ourselves,” said Scheer.
Former senator and longtime MPP Bob Runciman recalled his decades of association with Brown, going back to the latter’s Young Progressive Conservatives days.
“From 1981 on, Gord worked on all of my provincial campaigns, and from 2000 on I worked on all of his,” said Runciman, who called Brown a “trailblazer in the effort to unite Conservatives.
“Gord wanted to attend every ribbon-cutting in the riding, and as a result I felt I had to be there too,” he joked. “The guy was exhausting me.”
While he was low-key in public, Brown pushed behind the scenes for such things as Rideau Canal operating hours, the expansion of the Port of Johnstown or funding for the Gananoque Boat Museum, said Runciman.
“Gord knew who to talk to and he did not give up,” he added.
Steve Clark, who is running for re-election as the local MPP, paid joking tribute to the recent proliferation of Gord Brown campaign signs repurposed to say “Thank You.”
“Gord was a winner on this ice, he was a winner in the political arena, and if he was here today he would remind me that he’s winning the sign war in Gananoque over me, and he would take great delight in doing that,” said Clark.
The list of Brown’s accomplishments is “massive,” said Clark.
“You can go to every corner of this riding and see a community and a person that Gord Brown has touched in a positive way,” he added.
Brown’s brother, Jeff, listed Brown’s athletic, business and community achievements, including his “visionary” role in the creation of the Thousand Islands Accommodation Partners.
Hockey had a large role in Gord Brown’s life — he had two assists in the game he played the morning he died — and the presiding minister, Rev. Carl Emke of Grace United Church, added an early moment of levity when he noted Brown’s pallbearers were all wearing pins with the logo of his beloved Toronto Maple Leafs.
“Gord had said that he wanted his pallbearers to represent the Maple Leafs, and that is the reason they are wearing Maple Leaf pins, because he wanted to recognize that the Maple Leafs would let him down for the last time,” said Emke. “He loved to laugh, and he would love to see us laugh this morning.”
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