Mr. Speaker, on behalf of my colleagues, I would also like to pay tribute to Mr. Manning, as I called him for many, many years.
In the annals of Canadian history, Ernest Charles Manning will be remembered as a statesman, a leader and a builder. Over the course of some 25 years as the premier of Alberta, he led Albertans from the poverty and destitution of the depression to the prosperity and affluence of today.
Inheriting a financially bankrupt treasury in 1935, he left Alberta debt free. Some 30 per cent of the budget of the Alberta government was cash in the bank when he left. That is a tremendous record and something we do not always see today.
At the time Mr. Manning took over in 1935, the bankers of the day were not willing to provide Alberta with money, nor was the Government of Canada. He had a very difficult time to start within that depression era. Presiding over the development of the oil and gas industry which reversed the province's fortunes, Mr. Manning made possible the economic, social and educational infrastructure which exists today in Alberta.
On the national scene he played a leading role in bringing the concerns of western Canadians to the halls of power in Ottawa. As the Prime Minister said very well, he participated in every federal-provincial conference from Mackenzie King to Pierre Trudeau and spent 13 years as a senator where he became the leading advocate for the reform of that institution. He has left his mark on our province of Alberta and our country Canada.
When I speak of Mr. Manning today, I pay tribute to the man himself, one whom I considered to be a teacher, a mentor and a very close friend. I had the honour and privilege of serving in Mr. Manning's government and cabinet for five years. The lessons I learned during that period of time remain with me today and will remain with me for the rest of my life.
There are lessons we would all do well to learn. Above all, they centre around three basic words: honesty, integrity and fairness. Mr. Manning stood for something at all times. Everything he did, every action he took was grounded in a very firm moral conviction.
Every decision he reached was in the embodiment of a fundamental principle. Mixed into that principle always was this element of fairness.
When groups would come to make presentations to us as a cabinet, he made sure that both sides were heard and that everybody was able to understand the problem. In the final analysis he was able to pick out of the conversation the key thing that had to be decided, then he would ask cabinet: "Is this what we are deciding? Is it fair and is it right for our people?" At that point we would make a decision and proceed. It was a very open, democratic process.
Every policy he brought forward in Alberta was sought to realize his goal of creating an environment in which each individual could have the freedom and resources to reach their full potential and make a contribution to society. A central characteristic of Mr. Manning was his strong ethical grounding, his sense of moral centre. It acted as his compass and the guiding means of his conduct in his government.
There was no room for favouritism in Mr. Manning's Alberta. There were no kickbacks, there were no grafts. It simply was not done. Even members of the business community who were very suspicious of social credit in its beginning came to respect him and to trust him. When he gave them his word, they knew it was good, and it was.
I remember many of our experiences together: the medicare discussions; the locating of the University of Lethbridge in southern Alberta; CPR's relocation in Calgary; meeting with the Metis people of northern Alberta; the paper on human resources development; the book on political realignment. I remember the one day in his office about a week before he resigned as premier when he sat back in his chair, pulled the right bottom drawer open and said to me: "There are many new things to do yet, Ray. I have a drawerful". His thoughts were always about the future and not on the past.
Mr. Manning, in his deeds and actions, set a standard by which all politicians are measured. A man of dignity and integrity, a devoted Christian and a loving father, he was a credit to his profession. Taken from us at the age of 87 he will be missed as a leader in our communities, missed by his family, by his son, by his province, by his country, but we are all richer, warmer and wiser for the great experience of having known him.
