Bill Graham, former Canadian foreign and defence minister, has died at the 83rd year.
News of the former interim Liberal leader’s death was shared by multiple senior Liberals, cabinet ministers, current and former Canadian politicians as well as members of the defence and security community on social media on Monday afternoon.
John English, former Liberal MP, said that Graham died Sunday, according a member his family who shared the news with him today.
I’m saddened to hear of the passing of my friend and mentor Bill Graham. He was a giant in Canadian politics and international politics. He was proud of his love for Canada. My condolences go out to his family.
— Omar Alghabra (@OmarAlghabra) August 8, 2022
Jean Chretien, an ex-prime minister, appointed Graham to the post of foreign affairs secretary in January 2002. This was during which Graham and Canada were quickly involved in the changing world after the terrorist attacks of September 11.
During his tenure, Graham led the government through pivotal decisions including not joining the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq following that attack, and he played a central role in shaping Canada’s response to what become known as the War on Terror.
Paul Martin, the former Liberal prime minster who replaced Chretien as leader, named him to the defence post in juillet 2004. While in the role, Graham backed a proposal that would have seen Canada joining the U.S.’s ballistic missile defence program for the continent, but the measure failed to get political backing in the Canadian minority Parliament of the time.
Graham later told the Senate national security and defence committee he believed that opposition was a result of the deep unpopularity of the American president pushing the proposal — George W. Bush.
“If it had been President Obama asking with his approach, you never know, we might have said yes,” Graham said in that testimony in 2014.
“We should be intimately involved in the architecture of national defence, and that does include ballistic missile defence.”
Anita Anand, Defence Minister, remains concerned about the issue.
Graham was most recently the chancellor of Trinity College at The University of Toronto. In 2015, he was awarded the Order of Canada.
He had remained involved in defence and foreign affairs after leaving office in 2007, and was among the experts who advised one of his successors, Harjit Sajjan, on the federal government’s defence policy reset in the leadup to its 2017 release.
More to come…
— with a file from The Canadian Press.
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