Mr. Speaker, George Hees was married on June 30, 1934 to Mabel Dunlop of Pembroke, Ontario. Mabs Dunlop, as she was known, was the daughter of A.E. Dunlop, the provincial treasurer in the Conservative government in Ontario for many years. George was very proud to have married into that family. The Hon. A.E. Dunlop, the former treasurer of Ontario, died earlier that year just before George and Mabs were married.
As Minister of Veterans Affairs, the Hon. George Hees invited me and others in the House at the time to the 45th anniversary of the Dieppe raid. I can recall how emotional he was at times during that visit. He did a great job for Canada as a spokesperson, as one to represent the veterans, and we had many cenotaph ceremonies remembering those who died at the battle of Dieppe.
As veterans affairs minister George Hees was very personal, very in depth and had a great empathy for his job. All veterans got the benefit of the doubt when they asked George Hees to look into a case.
One of the reasons George Hees lived from 1910 until 1996 was that he was a great believer in physical exercise, as mentioned by a previous speaker. He was always out doing his thing early in the morning and even in the evenings. Besides being a great person in phys-ed, he was never at a loss for words either.
He was first elected in 1950 and then re-elected in 1953, 1957, 1958 and 1962. He did not run in 1963. He came back into the House in 1965, when I was first elected. He was in the House for the next 23 years after that.
Of interest, I believe nearly all of the ministers from the Ontario cabinet came to Pembroke for his father-in-law's funeral in 1934.
George was a hail fellow well met. When we came back from the the 45th anniversary of the Dieppe raid, I delivered a statement in the House praising George Hees and thanking him for doing such a fine job in leading that delegation to that very important memorial. I recall at the time Mary Collins from Vancouver sent me a kind note across the House thanking me for saying something nice about George Hees because in those days not very many people said nice things about anybody. Nevertheless he was a tremendous fellow.
I have one last comment with respect to George's in-laws. It is of interest to note that Paul Martin Senior first ran in the old Renfrew North provincial riding against A.E. Dunlop who was George's father-in-law. The most interesting part of that story is that Paul Martin Senior's father worked in the lumber yard for A.E. Dunlop and his son was running against A.E. Dunlop in the provincial election. That created a little interest. George was always one to tell a lot of stories of his background.
Today we are really celebrating the life of a person who spent 35 years of elected service in this House of Commons. As the representative for Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke, I extend to George's family and all his relatives and friends sincere condolences from Lois and me today.