Columnist Michael Taube falls into the easy and clichéd when he writes on why former deputy prime minister Herb Gray did not merit a state funeral (CJN, May 14). Yes, Gray was dull, stolid and, well, grey. Those, of course, are not reasons for denying him a state funeral. But when Taube asserts that Gray, in his 40 years as a Liberal MP and through 11 cabinet portfolios, “didn’t introduce significant political and economic policies” and “had little to do with important legislation,” he’s being facile, inaccurate and a little churlish.

In chronological order, Gray, an economic nationalist, stirred up controversy in 1972 with a foreign-investment policy review that led to the release the Gray Report. The study set the stage for the creation of the Foreign Investment Review Agency, which ensured that foreign investors brought significant benefits to Canada.

Later, as consumer and corporate affairs minister, Gray introduced an unusual piece of legislation, the Anti-Profiteering Bill, which aimed to halt gouging of consumers by giving the government power to roll back price increases that produced “above customary profits.” The bill was later dropped, but Gray’s heart was in the right place. Of course, as a conservative, Taube doubtless would recoil at this level of government intervention in the private sector.

But surely Taube must approve, even if grudgingly, of Gray’s legendary 1980 rescue of Chrysler Corp. As industry minister in the Trudeau government, he negotiated federal loan guarantees that were widely credited with helping to save the Windsor-based car maker, along with some 10,000 well-paying jobs. It may stand as Gray’s singular achievement and as one of the most successful public bailouts in Canadian history.

Later, as solicitor general, a job he wasn’t keen on, Gray heeded calls for tougher treatment of violent criminals while also emphasizing the importance of rehabilitation and reducing the root causes of crime.

More quietly, as Jean Chrétien’s House leader, Gray did more to bolster parliamentary democracy that anyone at the time. In a little-noticed shift in 1996, he introduced measures that would refer bills to committee before second reading, rather than after. Sounds dry, but it allowed MPs to play a greater role in crafting legislation, because a bill that passes second reading implies approval-in-principle.

Later that year, he used the new legislation to amend the Canada Elections Act, creating a permanent register of electors and shortening the election period by several weeks.

As National Post columnist John Ivison asked in his tribute to Gray: “Can anyone imagine the Conservatives [today] amending the rules unilaterally to give backbenchers on all sides of the House more say in the legislative process? Even their own MPs believe they have acted like ‘tone-deaf bullies’ with their version of the Elections Act.”

Green party Leader Elizabeth May, perhaps buffeted by emotion following his death, said Gray, in 2001, “saved” the Kyoto environmental protocol. That could be hyperbole, but we know Gray was certainly onside when it came to the accords, from which the federal Tories withdrew in 2011.

Gray also headed the wrenching file on residential school abuse, working with aboriginal groups to successfully settle outstanding claims and begin a healing of past wrongs.

Also outside the strict legislative process, Gray frequently slagged his own government, in public, for not doing enough to counter the Arab economic boycott of Israel. It was also Gray who persuaded human rights activist Irwin Cotler to take up the case of Soviet prisoner of conscience Natan Sharansky, and he brokered a meeting between Pierre Trudeau and Sharansky’s wife, Avital.

It adds up – perhaps not to a state funeral, but to a list of solid achievements over a half-century of which Taube is either sadly unaware or blithely ignores. Yes, as Taube writes, Gray “had a dull personality and didn’t stand head and shoulders above his political colleagues, Liberal or otherwise.” He never sought to. For this eminently humble and decent man, what mattered were results. And he got plenty.