By Lloyd Mackey

FORMER Liberal senator Ray Perrault died Monday morning, November 24, at age 82, after suffering for some years with Parkinson's disease.

I had two encounters with Perrault, both quite agreeable. They loaned themselves well to my promised consideration, this week, of the concepts of civility and collaboration in the functioning of a minority parliament.

My first encounter with Perrault was around 1977. He had been appointed to the Senate by Pierre Elliott Trudeau in 1973. One of a fair number of Liberals elected to the House of Commons from British Columbia in the Trudeaumania sweep of the late '60s, he lost his Burnaby seat in 1972. That was when Trudeau beat the Stanfield Conservatives by a razor-thin 109 to 107.

The occasion on which I encountered Perrault was when he was searching out people who might be electable for the Liberals. I was editor of the Chilliwack Progress at the time and, apparently, some Christian Trudeau fans indicated that a Christian who was editor of a long-established and liberal-leaning newspaper might at least be worth sounding out.

The timing was wrong and, besides, I was a little more of a small-c conservative than a liberal. Later, when some Conservatives had the same idea with respect to my possible political involvement, I considered their thoughts, but came to the same decision -- not to get involved.

The fact was that I liked Alex Patterson, the Conservative MP at the time, and a wise and fine Christian. Even if I thought I could, I felt that I would not be worthy to unlatch Patterson's shoes, let alone knock him off in an electoral contest. I was, and remain, of the view that young political hopefuls should be very careful about trying to "kill off the old lion" before he or she has completed useful service. Patterson did go on to serve almost another decade, with distinction, before putting a wrap on his political career.

But I was grateful for Perrault's interest at the time. It certainly stirred me to consider, even then, the importance of letting one's faith inform his or her political action.

That's because, under the surface, Perrault was a pretty devout fellow -- largely through the influence of the charismatic Catholic movement, but also through family connections with what is now the Evangelical Missionary Church, which he took fairly seriously.

That is probably why my second pleasant encounter with him took place, about two decades after that Chilliwack connection.

Around the end of the '90s, the MP with whom Edna works, Maurice Vellacott, proposed a piece of private members' legislation. Called a "conscience" bill, it was designed to protect hospital workers who, on the basis of their beliefs, would not want to participate in certain medical procedures -- like abortions.

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The bill went nowhere at the time. But, a few months later, Perrault picked up on it and announced that he was going to take a shot at trying to get it through the Senate. I asked him, at the time, why he, a staunch Liberal, would try to help a Reform MP's initiative. His response, as near as I recall, was that there are some matters, particularly in the social issue area, where there needs to be both civility and collaboration.

While Vellacott's conscience bill never made the cut, he continues to plug away. Right now, the issue is equal parenting. But more about that another day.

There is a more recent instance of Liberal-Conservative collaboration, this time, as it happens, a little more successful. John McKay, a Liberal from Scarborough-Guildwood who also has the distinction of having helped found the Canadian arm of Christian Legal Fellowship, successfully piloted the Better Aid Bill (C-293) through the House. But it was running into stormy seas, at times, until Conservative Senator, Hugh Segal, got involved.

The bill was intended to smooth the way for the application of federal aid dollars to non-government development organizations -- many of them faith-based.

Again, the impetus came in fair measure from people in different parts of the political spectrum who understood the faith and/or values implications of the work done by non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Much is being written about the new spirit of co-operation in Parliament in this first session since the October 14 election. Some of my press gallery colleagues are saying it won't last. Others are hoping it won't, because too much co-operation means fewer exciting conflict-laden news stories. And some others are figuring that this may just be the big story.

I have to confess to being among the latter.

And what I see, so far, is the Conservatives making it much easier for members of the other parties to co-operate with them -- and to varying degrees -- the opposition parties responding constructively.

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There will always be conflict in an adversarial political setting. And, hopefully, there will always be conflict resolution -- some of it biblically-based.

I was hoping to write this week about the contribution that demonization and deification makes to the creating of destructive conflict. But will have to wait, because, as it happened, the death of Ray Perrault provided some of the antidote to those two pesky "D's".

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Lloyd Mackey is a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery in Ottawa and author of Stephen Harper: The Case for Collaborative Governance (ECW Press, 2006), More Faithful Than We Think: Stories and Insights on Canadian Leaders Doing Politics Christianly (BayRidge Books, 2005) and Like Father, Like Son: Ernest Manning and Preston Manning (ECW Press, 1997). Lloyd can be reached at lmackey@canadianchristianity.com.

November 27/2008