After more than four decades of public service, a New Brunswick senator is just days away from retirement.

Percy Mockler will step down on Sunday when he reaches the Senate’s mandatory retirement age of 75.

“I am leaving today knowing I have done my best in my work,” Mockler said during his final speech in the Senate on Thursday.

“I have been privileged to work with all of you, and no doubt, it is about people, it is about politics, independent or partisan. We must remember that we work in democracy.”

Mockler’s public service career began in 1982 when he was elected as a Progressive Conservative MLA. At the age of 32, the Saint-Léonard native he was the youngest MLA at the time.

He lost the 1987 election to Liberal candidate Pierrette Ringuette — who would later become his colleague in the Senate — but went on to win the following five elections in 1993, 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2006.

Mockler was appointed to the Seante in 2009 by then-prime minister Stephen Harper and resigned from his provincial posting.