I’m honoured to stand and say a few words on behalf of my colleagues in the Liberal caucus on the life and work of Mitro “Mac” Makarchuk, the former member of provincial Parliament for Brantford.

Mac, as described by his younger sister, Lisa, was a true character, an inveterate and generous party thrower and partygoer and a genial rabble-rouser. I think that legacy is still alive and well in this place today for a few of our colleagues.

Mac was born in northern Saskatchewan in 1929 to parents who emigrated from Ukraine. Growing up through the Great Depression, like so many others, their family was poor, and Mac would recall always being hungry for lunch. I’m sure that these experiences no doubt played a formational role and were a formational aspect of his future political ideologies.

From his humble beginnings growing up on his parents’ farm, he left his family at the age of 17 to embark on a new chapter, one where he could grow, learn and make his parents proud.

Mac had an eclectic professional life, to say the least, I think. He served in both the navy and the air force, which I’m sure made the rivalry games very difficult for him. He was a boat builder; he was a journalist; he was a Brantford alderman; and of course, he was a member of provincial Parliament.

At one point, Mac was even a budding sports executive, offering to underwrite a collegiate hockey championship between the western Canadian champions and the eastern Canadian champions. In true western form, Saskatchewan’s native son convinced the Huskies to accept the offer, but it was the Toronto Varsity Blues who turned him down, and so the championship never got off the ground.

Out of all of his professional work, Mac’s entrance into public life, into politics, I think is the most interesting. Certainly, how he first became an NDP candidate was very interesting when I read about it. As a journalist, Mac was assigned to cover the local NDP nomination race. Well, as it turns out, there was no candidate in the nomination race, so when he showed up he put his name forward, and he won. He then went back to work and wrote the story about his victory for the newspaper. I’m sure that’s the kind of press we would all like to get every once in a while for ourselves. So that’s how his journey with the NDP started, in the 1965 federal election. He ended up losing that election, but that was just the start of Mac’s journey in politics.

He became the provincial NDP candidate in the following year’s provincial election and was successful. In fact, he was still working at the Expositor newspaper at the time. He asked for a leave of absence to run the campaign. They refused, and so they fired him. Well, he ultimately won that election for MPP in Brantford in 1967, and after he won, crowds of people went to the head office of the Expositor and chanted, “You fired him, and we hired him.” They were chanting outside the newspaper in celebration. I think that’s a brilliant way to start off your political career. And certainly he had a great deal of success.

He served one term as MPP and then served on Brantford city council as an alderman in 1972. He eventually returned to the Legislature in 1975 and was re-elected again in 1977, eventually leaving this place in 1981. Throughout his time, Mac never failed to speak up for his constituents, either here at the Legislature or at city hall.

Outside of his professional life, he loved to travel the world with his wife, Carolynne, and he always enjoyed a nice glass of wine and fine dining.

To his loving wife, Carolynne; his sister, Lisa; his brother-in-law, James; his nieces, Tanya and Michele; and his nephew, Darwin: Thank you for sharing Mac with the people of Ontario.

Rest in peace.

It’s an honour today to pay tribute to Mitro “Mac” Makarchuk on behalf of the official opposition, the people of Ontario, and on behalf of our party—the party he served with such distinction.

Before I begin, I’d like to welcome Mac’s friends and family to the Legislature. His many successes speak to the love and support of those closest to him. In particular, running for office and serving as an MPP is a group project, so it’s an honour to have you here as we celebrate his contributions to the Legislature and to the province.

I never had the opportunity to meet Mac, but as I read this, there are many similarities that make me wish I had, and we will touch on some of them.

Mac was the kind of person who wouldn’t be kept down. He trusted his instincts, fought for what he believed in, and made a point of having lots of fun along the way.

As a child, his family struggled to settle themselves in Canada after emigrating from Ukraine—my parents emigrated from Holland; I can understand that—and there were days he went hungry for lunch. I will never eat liver, because we ate a lot of liver. Even still, he occupied himself by constructing a radio and building a darkroom.

At 17, when he decided to expand his horizons beyond his family farm in rural Saskatchewan—and that touched me, because at 17, I had to decide whether to keep the family farm or move on, and I made a decision different than his, but I respect the decision. He first joined the navy and then the air force as a pilot and a parachute jumper. It takes a special kind of person to volunteer for those jobs, and throughout his life, he proved time and time again that he wasn’t afraid to make the jump.

When he left the University of Toronto after two years, he quickly pivoted to a career in journalism. One day, when he was covering an NDP nomination meeting and saw that nobody was running, he threw his own hat in the ring. I was also one of the most unlikely NDP candidates ever, except for him.

He lost his first race, as did I, but as was his way, he didn’t let that setback stop him—not even when he was forced to choose between running for office and his job with the newspaper. In fact, he later said that getting fired by the Expositor was the best thing to ever happen to him.

He won that election in 1967 and then won again in 1975, at which time he took on the role of whip for the NDP. As current whip for the NDP, I know he had to have a sense of humour.

After being re-elected in 1977, he lent his expertise in housing and urban affairs as critic for regional development and planning.

Mac was prescient in the causes he advocated for, including his support for environmental organizations and the anti-nuclear-arms movement. He also never overlooked the local projects that make people’s everyday lives better. From championing the creation of a new community centre to offering to personally underwrite a national university hockey championship, he did what he could to make life more joyful for everyone around him.

While most people would stop there, as if that were not enough, he also built a yacht while he was serving as an MPP. I give him credit for that. Nobody was ever going to put Mac in a box. He would always surprise you.

After his career in politics, he reinvented himself once again. Mac built a successful business operating a charter boat and travelled the world with his wife. He filled his life with good food, good wine, good conversation and, of course, lots of laughter.

Mac truly lived life to the fullest. There are not a lot of people who can say that. He grew from humble beginnings as a child of new immigrants in the Prairies to become an air force parachutist, journalist, whip in a provincial Legislature, shipbuilder, entrepreneur and world traveller, all the while collecting many new friends. It’s the kind of story that movies should be made of. It’s the Canadian dream.

Where others might stay in their comfort zone, Mac went looking for adventure. Where others might be hindered by self-doubt, Mac embraced new challenges. Where others might just talk about the things that need fixing, Mac took action—truly a life well lived.

We thank you, Mac, for your service. May you rest in peace.

Applause.