WHITEHORSE, YUKON–Erik Nielsen, a former deputy prime minister in Brian Mulroney's Tory government and elder brother of comic actor Leslie Nielsen, has died at his home in Kelowna, B.C., at age 84.
His son, Rick Nielsen, said his father died suddenly after a massive heart attack on Thursday.
Dubbed "Yukon Erik," the longest-serving MP in the territory is being remembered for working passionately for his constituents during 30 years in politics. Nielsen won the Yukon's Progressive Conservative nomination in 1957 and never lost an election, holding his seat until resigning in 1987.
Between 1984 and 1986, he was second-in-command to Mulroney.
But a falling out with the way Mulroney managed the government prompted Nielsen to write his autobiography, This House is Not a Home.
Flo Whyard, Whitehorse's mayor in the early '80s, said Nielsen was a huge booster for the territory and a practical man who wasn't pretentious. "He was an impatient man with a lot to do, but I had great respect for him," said Whyard, who called Nielsen "Mr. Yukon" for the voice he gave the territory's residents in Ottawa.
Nielsen is survived by two other children and his second wife, Shelley Coxford.
