If Robert Stanfield is the best Prime Minister Canada never had, John McCain is the best President America never had, says Peter MacKay, Canada’s former foreign affairs and national defence minister.
Reflecting on the life of the senator and former presidential candidate, MacKay said he considers knowing McCain one of the greatest honours of his life.
“You get to know certain greatness throughout your life rarely,” MacKay said. “He falls into that category.”
McCain, who famously refused an early release as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War until those who had been captured before him were also released, passed away Aug. 25 at 81. Services will be held in various locations this week, honouring his life.
MacKay said he first met McCain in 2004 and through his time as a cabinet minister, MacKay had ongoing interactions with McCain. They would meet regularly during the Halifax International Security Forum, to which McCain always brought passion and decorum. MacKay saw him last this past spring in Arizona that McCain’s foundation invited him to ever year.
“I came to think of him as a mentor. Someone I looked up to and someone I could consider as a friend.”
Through all the fame he would rise to, McCain remained humble and maintained a level of wit.
MacKay recalls one time in recent years visiting McCain at his office in Arizona. McCain showed him some photos that had been released to him from the Vietnam era, including one with a sign showing where McCain’s plane had gone down before he was captured. The translation from Vietnamese to English wasn’t great and proudly boasts that the place was where the American pirate John McCain was captured.
McCain couldn’t help but chuckle at it.
MacKay said this year at the International Security Forum in Halifax they’ll mark the 10th anniversary of the event by starting an award honouring international courage and leadership, named in John McCain’s honour. He believes it’s a fitting tribute.
MacKay will remember him as a man who always took the high road and wasn’t afraid to reach across party lines and be bi-partisan when it was appropriate.
“He earned the reputation of being a bit of a maverick by going against his party but he did it for all the right reasons.”
In a time when America is divided on many issues, he said McCain was a moral compass.
“I think John McCain was the greatest president we never had in our lifetime.”