OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is on his way to Jerusalem with a Canadian delegation to attend the funeral of former Israeli prime minister and president Shimon Peres, who died Wednesday at age of 93.
Trudeau, who left Ottawa early this morning, is accompanied by former prime minister Jean Chretien along with interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose and Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion.
Former prime minister Stephen Harper is not flying with Trudeau, but taking a commercial flight instead.
Just before taking off, Chretien called Peres a friend, "a great guy" and "a great public servant."
"When I quit, he gave me hell, said winners never quit and he never quit," Chretien said.
Dion said Trudeau wanted the Canadian delegation to be non-partisan.
"The whole country of Canada is supporting the whole country of Israel and the prime minister wanted that to be very clear," Dion said.
Ambrose echoed Dion's message of unity ahead of the trip overseas.
"When we look at Israel it's really a beacon of pluralism and democracy in a very difficult part of the world," she said.
"All the more important for all of us no matter what political party we come from to attend these kind of events and honour a legacy like Shimon Peres."
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair couldn't attend due to a family commitment.
Peres served two terms as Israeli prime minister and was also the country's president. He shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for negotiating the short lived Oslo Accords peace deal.
Other world figures planning to attend the funeral include U.S. President Barack Obama, former U.S. president Bill Clinton, Prince Charles and the presidents of France, Germany and Poland.
