CanadaWho was Brian Mulroney?
Martin Brian Mulroney was born in Baie-Comeau, Quebec, in 1939. He studied political science and law, practised as a labour lawyer and later became president of the Iron Ore Company of Canada. He won the Progressive Conservative leadership in 1983 and a record landslide in 1984. He won a second majority in 1988 on free trade, then retired in 1993 as his popularity collapsed. He died in 2024.
Political views
Negotiated the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement, later expanded into NAFTA.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgReplaced the manufacturers' sales tax with the goods and services tax, appointing extra senators in 1990 to pass it over Liberal opposition.
Source: cbc.caPrivatized 23 of Canada's 61 Crown corporations, including Air Canada and Petro-Canada.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSought Quebec's endorsement of the constitution through the Meech Lake and Charlottetown accords, which would have recognised Quebec as a distinct society.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSigned the 1991 acid rain treaty with the United States, which used a cap-and-trade system to cut sulphur dioxide emissions.
Source: cbc.caApologised in 1988 for the wartime internment of Japanese Canadians and agreed a redress package including $21,000 for each survivor.
Source: cbc.caLed a Commonwealth effort from 1985 to sanction South Africa to end apartheid and free Nelson Mandela, against the opposition of Reagan and Thatcher.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Legacy
Admirers credit Mulroney with economic reforms that later governments kept, including free trade and the GST, with environmental achievements such as the acid rain treaty, and with leadership against apartheid. At his 2024 state funeral he was remembered as a leader who made tough choices for the greater good. Critics blame the failure of Meech Lake for reviving Quebec separatism and the rise of the Bloc Québécois, and Western alienation for the rise of the Reform Party. The GST was opposed by up to 80 percent of Canadians and the deficit was never brought under control. After leaving office he was accused in the Airbus affair; the 2010 Oliphant Commission reported that he had accepted $225,000 from the businessman Karlheinz Schreiber. Months after he retired, his party was reduced from 156 seats to two in the 1993 election.