Who was Brian Mulroney?
Brian Mulroney grew up in Baie-Comeau, a company town in Quebec, where he was born in 1939. He trained as a lawyer and worked on labour cases before running a large mining company. Taking over the Progressive Conservatives in 1983, he led them to the biggest majority Canada had ever seen the next year. Voters gave him a second term in 1988, mostly because of the trade deal with the Americans. He left office in 1993 with very low approval ratings, and he died in 2024. His government changed Canada's economy and its place in the world.
Political views
- His government struck a free trade pact with the Americans in the late 1980s. It later grew into NAFTA.Source: en.wikipedia.org
- Of the 61 federal Crown corporations, 23 were privatized. They included Air Canada and Petro-Canada.Source: cbc.ca
- The old tax on manufacturers gave way to the GST. Liberal senators were blocking it, so in 1990 he appointed extra senators to get it through.Source: en.wikipedia.org
- He wanted Quebec to sign on to the constitution. The Meech Lake and Charlottetown deals were his tries, and both would have called Quebec a distinct society.Source: en.wikipedia.org
- Starting in 1985 he pushed the Commonwealth to put pressure on South Africa over apartheid and the jailing of Nelson Mandela. Reagan and Thatcher did not share his view.Source: cbc.ca
- In 1988 he formally apologised for interning Japanese Canadians in the war. The redress deal paid each survivor $21,000.Source: cbc.ca
- A 1991 treaty with the US dealt with acid rain. It limited sulphur dioxide and let firms trade emission allowances.Source: en.wikipedia.org
Legacy
Supporters say his big reforms outlasted him. Later governments kept the trade deal and the GST, his acid rain pact held up, and he pushed hard against apartheid. Speakers at his state funeral in 2024 praised his willingness to make hard choices. Critics say the collapse of Meech Lake fed Quebec separatism and the Bloc Québécois, while western anger helped the Reform Party grow. Most Canadians hated the GST, and the deficit stayed high. After he left office, the Airbus affair hurt his name. The 2010 Oliphant inquiry found he took $225,000 from Karlheinz Schreiber. In 1993 his party fell from 156 seats to two.