The often and mostly unexpressed emotions that Canadians have for their country in its totality were chartered for the mourning and celebration of a man who spoke for the country. It was not a mania of any kind. There was nothing hectic about it, but a natural, courteous, honest release of respect and affection to the one public figure of recent times who urged a sense of country upon Canadians, and whom they saw being as large, and this is not adulation, as the idea of the country he embraced and promoted. This country is not a parcel of fragments, or a hundred special solitudes. It draws a pulse and force and beauty from what we have in common, and he was the most splendid advocate and articulator of what in common we have.
Citizens do, of course.
And saying farewell to Pierre Trudeau was, sad though it had to be, the perfect moment to take up that conversation. And it was more thank you than farewell. For the Magazine, I'm Rex Murphy.