L. Ian MacDonald R.I.P.

L. Ian MacDonald, former Mulroney speech writer and Gazette columnist, dies at 78
MacDonald worked “right at the centre of all those important moments” in Quebec and Canadian politics.
By René Bruemmer
L. Ian MacDonald, a former chief speech writer for Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, editor of Policy Magazine and longtime national affairs columnist for the Montreal Gazette, has died. He was 78 years old.
A graduate of Loyola High School in Montreal and then Loyola College (now Concordia University), MacDonald remembered going on a class trip to Ottawa as a teenager, looking down on the Parliamentary press gallery and deciding he wanted to become a journalist. He was hired at The Gazette soon after he graduated from university.
David Johnston, a former reporter and editor at The Gazette, remembers coming to the paper as a 22-year-old summer intern in 1979 and being in awe of MacDonald, who in his early 30s was already the newspaper’s TV and radio columnist, and soon after a city columnist.
“Ian, already at age 31, was a superstar. … His great talent, I think, was how easy he was to read. I used to remark on how he got you into his first paragraph so easily. And he always had a nice ending.”
Johnston, who later edited MacDonald’s freelance national affairs columns at The Gazette, remembered MacDonald once told him he was filing a story on his BlackBerry smartphone, “sitting down with his two thumbs and maybe one finger, filing clean copy.”
“He had this talent of being able to think and express his thoughts at the same time. It just flowed out beautifully.”
[From 1985 to 1988, for four years MacDonald wrote speeches for Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney as his primary speechwriter, and for years wrote the Queen’s Canadian speeches. From 1992 to 1994 he worked as head of communications (Minister of Public Affairs) at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C., in the United States.]
MacDonald went on to become The Gazette’s national affairs columnist, then was hired as Mulroney’s chief speech writer in 1984, staying in the post for four years. From 1992 to 1994, he worked as head of the public affairs division at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
He wrote his first book, Mulroney: The Making of the Prime Minister in 1984, and would go on to write six more. He would also serve as the editor and publisher of Policy Magazine, which focuses on Canadian politics and public policy, and continued to write columns for several publications, including The Gazette, until recently.
MacDonald worked as a journalist and speech writer during some of the headiest times in Quebec and Canadian politics, starting at the time of the October Crisis in Montreal, then language legislation of Bill 22 and Bill 101, the Quebec referendums in 1980 and ’95, and the Meech Lake Accord.
“Through all of that, Ian was right at the centre of all those important moments of the last quarter of the 20th century,” Johnston said.
MacDonald was an anglo Quebecer, but he also worked closely on the Meech Lake Accords with Mulroney, promoting the idea of Quebec as a distinct society. Their example showed “the political opinion in the English-speaking community is bit more nuanced than is sometimes recognized,” Johnston said.
“And he was a nice guy. He was never mean. I don’t remember him ever saying or writing anything that was mean.”
He was also inducted in the Concordia University Sports Hall of Fame in 2002 as equipment manager of the Loyola College Warriors 1968 hockey team.
MacDonald is survived by his two daughters, his sister, Sandra Smith, and his ex-wife, Lisa Van Dusen, editor and publisher of Policy magazine. His niece is Christina Smith, the former mayor of Westmount.
He remained an active follower of politics to the end, Smith said, always with a newspaper under his arm. On Monday, he was feeling ill, but said he couldn’t go to hospital because he was scheduled to give a talk at the seniors home where he lived on the outcome of the Quebec provincial elections.
“He was very excited about that,” Smith said. “He said: ‘I can’t go. I’m delivering a speech.’ “
MacDonald was brought in on Monday for emergency surgery and never regained consciousness. He passed away on Wednesday (7 October).
MacDonald was well known in local curling circles for his involvement in the annual Art MacDonald Curling Trophy, named after his father. Arthur MacDonald was an engineer and an avid curler who died of a heart attack while attending the Quebec Bonspiel when Ian was 10 years old.
L. Ian MacDonald (the L stands for Lawrence) served as the principal speaker at the curling event every year from 2007 up until last November. Organized by the Pointe-Claire and Royal Montreal curling clubs, the bonspiel raised more than $40,000 for The Gazette Christmas Fund, which provides money to families and individuals in need during the holidays.
“He was very witty,” recalled Tim Lapin, a co-chair of the tournament in recent years. “He would give a prepared speech, and then take questions and answers. He was always polite and listened, but if he disagreed with you he would let you know. But always very politely.”
Lapin remembers MacDonald was always truthful, and wasn’t afraid to say if he didn’t know the answer to a question, “which is not an attribute you hear much these days.”
MacDonald continued to attend the event despite health problems in his later years, Lapin said. The bonspiel is continuing to run.
In 2010, MacDonald told Métropolitain newspaper he was content with the career choice he had made as a teenager.
“I’ve never lost that sense of excitement, and I am very aware of having a privileged seat as a witness to history,” he said.

Policy Magazine
Policy magazine was founded in 2013 by political columnists L. Ian MacDonald and Lisa Van Dusen as a nonpartisan platform for insight and analysis on Canadian politics and public policy. Since then, we’ve broadened our editorial scope to include more US and international policy and politics, and expanded our readership with Policy Online and The Week in Policy. Policy, now with more readers than ever since shifting to online-only in 2024, is both written and read by current and former senior political and policy-making professionals, including veteran strategists, MPs and senators, diplomats, CEOs, academics, government relations specialists, career journalists.

May 19, 2024
A Belated Farewell: L. Ian MacDonald on Brian Mulroney
As many of our readers know, Policy Publisher Emeritus L. Ian MacDonald, who served as Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s chief speechwriter and wrote the bestselling biography Mulroney: The Making of the Prime Minister, has been on hiatus since June 2023 due to a cognitive impairment. This lightly edited piece reflects a new level of lucidity in Ian’s writing thanks to a combination of time and treatment.