Simon Reisman, Canada's cocky chief free-trade negotiator during talks with the United States in the late 1980s, died in his sleep of cardiac arrest early Saturday morning at the Heart Institute in Ottawa at the age of 88.
But even as U.S. presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are vowing to fix the North American free trade deal or kill it, it was Reisman's baby -- the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement -- that began it all and remains the template for many world trade agreements.
And there's no doubt that during the two-and-a-half years of stormy negotiations, Reisman was the star, taking centre stage in a way few public servants would dare, often publicly scolding anyone who got in his way.
The stories of the Reisman remain legendary, even the untrue ones of him stubbing out his stogie on the wooden desk of U.S. Treasury Secretary John Connolly during a particularly testy meeting in the mid-60s.
Most, however, are true, says Gordon Ritchie, his lifelong friend and deputy during the free trade talks.
"Simon didn't back down,'' Ritchie said in an interview with The Canadian Press. "He even took a swing at me once over a misunderstanding. Simon told me he never stubbed his cigar out on the desk, though he may have let the ash fall on it.''
One of his tactics, Ritchie said, was to light up his cigar whenever the talks got particularly sticky, something that riled his opposite number on the U.S. side, Peter Murphy, a stodgy public servant who disliked cigar smoke.
He didn't just annoy his rivals.
Pat Carney, trade minister at the time, acknowledged she had a "difficult'' relationship with Reisman, although they later became friends. She has no doubt about his influence, however.
"Canada owes him,'' she said. "The FTA was a huge impact in reshaping the economy of North American and through NAFTA, subsequently Mexico. It also gave our businessmen confidence because if they could sell in the U.S. market, they had the confidence to try Asia or Europe.''
Reisman's influence in helping build a modern Canadian economy goes back to participating in the founding meeting for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in 1947, playing a key role in negotiating the auto pact signed in 1965, becoming Canada's first deputy minister of Industry, a department created on his recommendation, and later as deputy minister of finance.
But his name will forever be linked to the free trade negotiations, says Ritchie.
"I don't think people realize that the free trade agreement was fundamentally Simon's baby, even though a lot of people take credit for it now,'' Ritchie says.
"I was with the prime minister (Brian Mulroney) at the meeting with Ronald Reagan in Quebec City where they announced they wanted to have negotiations. But they were talking about more modest negotiations and the prime minister asked Simon for his views and Simon wrote a note to the PM to say let's go for the whole enchilada.''
Because he had staked so much of his personal capital on the deal, Reisman was under incredible pressure to succeed, says Ritchie. The result was that the naturally testy Reisman was even more likely to blow a fuse, particularly over his frustration that Murphy had been given a mandate to exact concessions, but not to make them.
Many still believe the blow ups were staged.
"A lot of it was for effect, I always had the feeling. Sometimes - I never did it because he was an older man and you always had to show respect - but sometimes I wanted to say `Simon, Simon, please. Calm down,' '' Thomas Niles, the U.S. ambassador to Canada at the time, said in a recent newspaper interview.
But Derek Burney, a former Canadian ambassador to the United States, agrees that Reisman's bluster was the real deal.
Yet Ritchie says Niles was largely correct about Reisman's most famous blow up, when he walked out of talks in 1986 over the U.S. refusal to negotiate a dispute-settling mechanism, a dealbreaker for Canada.
Ritchie said he flew back to Ottawa the night before to brief Mulroney that they were getting nowhere, then returned to Washington with approval to declare an impasse. Reisman was initially reluctant, fearing his baby would not recover, he said.
After a couple of weeks, the U.S. and Canada kicked the talks upstairs to top politicians, who pushed the agreement to conclusion.
"It wasn't spontaneous at all and it was not a bluff,'' Ritchie said. "Without us walking away from the table, we would not have gotten the deal.''
In a statement, Trade Minister David Emerson praised Reisman's contribution, saying "his formidable accomplishments have greatly contributed to our prosperity and quality of life.''
Born in Montreal on June 19, 1919, Reisman studied economics at McGill University and the London School of Economics where he received a master's degree in economics.
After joining the civil service in 1946, he worked on a number of significant economic agreements under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade that helped establish international trading systems and regulations after the Second World War. He also played a major role in the establishment of the Canadian-U.S. Auto Pact in 1965.
Reisman leaves his wife Constance and three children. Funeral arrangements are pending.
