Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney passed away yesterday (Thursday) at the age of 84, his family announced.

Mulroney died peacefully and surrounded by family, his daughter daughter Caroline Mulroney wrote on the X social network.

Mulroney served as the leader of the Progressive Conservative party in Canada from 1983-1993. In 1984, he was elected Prime Minister in a historic election that saw his party win a record 211 out of 282 seats in the House of Commons. He was reelected in 1988, but was voted out of power in a crushing electoral defeat in 1993

Among Mulroney's achievements was the signing of a free-trade agreement with the US under the Reagan Administration and was a close friend of American Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Mulroney "had the courage to do big things. He shaped our past, but he shapes our present and he will impact our future as well. He was an extraordinary statesman and he will be deeply, deeply missed.”

Canadian Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said that Mulroney "unleashed free enterprise, crushed inflation, restored fiscal sanity and concluded one of the greatest free trade agreements the world has ever seen."

He added, “On the world stage, he stood firmly on the side of Western allies against communism and for freedom. He was among the first and most strident to fight against South Africa’s apartheid policy and champion the cause of Nelson Mandela.”

US Ambassador to Canada David Cohen said that “Prime Minister Mulroney’s instrumental role in the creation of the North American Free Trade Agreement laid the foundation for decades of economic cooperation and shared prosperity between the United States and Canada."