Brian Mulroney Thatcher were the first foreign dignitaries to eulogize at a funeral for an American president. Two years later, at the request of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Mulroney traveled to Washington, DC along with Michael Wilson, Canada's ambassador to the United States, as Canada's representatives at the state funeral of former president Gerald Ford. In February 2005, as part of a physical examination, a CT scan revealed two small lumps in one of Mulroney's lungs. In his youth, Mulroney had been a heavy smoker. His doctors performed a biopsy, which ruled out cancer. (His surgery is sometimes cited as an example
The Secret Mulroney Tapes under the title . It has been suggested by some media outlets that Newman released his book before Mulroney could get his own edited and sanitized version of events out. After the publication of the book, Jean Charest, a former Cabinet minister under Mulroney and former premier of Quebec, came to his defence in a press conference, saying that he agreed with the statement that "Nobody has achievements like this ... you cannot name a Canadian prime minister who has done as many significant things as I did, because there are none." Charest pointed out that Mulroney was the father