OTTAWA, March 10 (UPI) -- Simon Reisman, who was Canada's lead representative in free-trade negotiations with the United States in the 1980s, has died of cardiac arrest at age 88.
Reisman died Sunday at the Heart Institute of Ottawa, The Globe and Mail reported Monday.
Reisman came across as stern in his dealings in the diplomatic arena -- he once famously walked out of negotiations -- and it was not a pose, friends and colleagues told the Toronto newspaper.
"Charming is not a word you would use, OK?" said Derek Burney, a former Canadian ambassador to the United States. "He was Mr. Rough-and-Tumble."
"He was one tough bird," said Allan Gotlieb, another former Canadian ambassador to the United States. "He was extremely direct and totally unfearful of the consequences of his comments. He was the diametric opposite of the namby-pamby civil servant."
Reisman is survived by his wife and three children.
