Simon Reisman | Canadian trade aide, 88

Simon Reisman, 88, a tough-talking civil servant who led Canada's free-trade negotiations with the United States in the late 1980s, has died.

The economist and World War II veteran died in his sleep Saturday at the Heart Institute in Ottawa, said Gordon Ritchie, his lifelong friend and deputy during the trade talks.

Mr. Reisman is best remembered for storming out of the Canada-U.S. negotiations and other public blowups that characterized the talks.

The U.S. ambassador to Canada during the talks, Thomas Niles, wondered whether Mr. Reisman's loud, indignant objections were more strategic than spontaneous.

While Mr. Reisman's angry 1987 walkout seemed to end the negotiations very publicly, it actually moved them up a notch to top politicians who pushed the agreement ahead, Niles said. The pact was signed in 1988.

- AP