 Sunday, March 03, 2024
A transformational PM
The news of former prime minister Brian Mulroney's death led to an outpouring of emotion and reflection this week, as politicians from across the political spectrum looked back on his tenure and how it helped shape Canada as we know it today. Senior Writer Darren Major takes a long look at what was perhaps Mulroney's most significant achievement: a lasting free trade deal with the United States. Plus, what's on deck for Rosemary Barton Live today. | | |  | Brian Mulroney remembered as a 'giant' and trailblazer in driving free trade | Darren Major, Senior Writer | | | | Kim Campbell, who served as Canada's prime minister in 1993, remembers her predecessor for his pragmatism.
"He's had a remarkable and consequential life ... What's interesting about Brian Mulroney was his willingness to rethink things, and learn new things and change his mind," she told David Cochrane, host of CBC News Network's Power & Politics.
"He spent much of his early life thinking that free trade between Canada and the United States would be a non-starter, " said Campbell, who also served in Mulroney's Conservative cabinet.
But the negotiation of a free trade agreement with the United States — and later Mexico — is one of the most controversial policies of the Mulroney era.
FULL STORY: Brian Mulroney, one of Canada's most consequential prime ministers, is dead at 84
Canada's 18th prime minister for nine years died earlier this week at age 84.
He was first elected to lead the country in 1984 after running a campaign promising to "refurbish" the Canada-U.S. relationship amid years of tension.
Those who worked with Mulroney's government say his ability to foster personal relationships helped seal an eventual trade deal with the U.S.
The seeds for the agreement were sown at the 1985 Shamrock Summit, when Mulroney hosted U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Quebec City. Both of Irish extraction, they famously sang lines from the folk song When Irish Eyes Are Smiling at the meeting that started on St. Patrick's Day.
LISTEN: How Brian Mulroney’s years in power — and countless phone calls — changed Canada
Fred Ryan, who served as Reagan's chief of staff, told CBC News Network that Mulroney left an impression on the president that helped pave the way to free trade negotiations.
The two "found they had a common world-view, they had a pride in their Irish heritage and they had a shared sense of humour — and that combination enabled those two men to find common ground to get things done in ways that really hadn't happened before," Ryan told CBC's Hillary Johnstone.
Ryan said Reagan and Mulroney shared a "vision" to enable free trade between the neighbouring countries.
"If not for the great chemistry between the two of them, [a trade deal] may not have happened."
Derek Burney, who was Mulroney's chief of staff and later Canada's ambassador to the U.S., said the negotiations were at risk of falling apart in 1987.
"It was a combination of him, his direct efforts with President Reagan and my negotiations with Jim Baker, who was the secretary of the Treasury at the time, that brought the agreement home," Burney told Nil Köksal, host of CBC Radio's As It Happens. | | | ![[image of the Liberal MP Randeep Sarai in the House of Commons]](https://newsletters.cbc.ca/i/amf_cbc/project_93/mulroneyfreetrade.jpg?size=1212x0&w=BL-1s0XletbINz2YKZOE34LzVaz8) | Prime Minister Brian Mulroney is all smiles before signing the proposed free trade agreement between Canada and the United States on Jan. 2, 1988. Mulroney, who died this week at 84, is remembered for his ability to foster personal relationships and free trade work. (Fred Chartrand/The Canadian Press) | Louise Blais, a former diplomat and staffer in Mulroney's government, said one of the sticking points for Canada was to ensure the country could protect its cultural industries. But she credited Mulroney with fighting for an exemption on the cultural sector that eventually made it into the final agreement.
"He didn't leave any stone unturned and at times where it mattered, he put in that capital and he kept the talks going," she told CBC News.
1988 election campaign centred on free trade
Mulroney and Reagan signed the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement in January 1988. But Mulroney would face an election before the deal was ratified.
The 1988 federal campaign became a battle over free trade, a concept Business Council of Canada president Goldy Hyder said wasn't necessarily popular at the time.
MORE: Friends and admirers remember Brian Mulroney for momentous policies that changed Canada
"I was on campus in the University of Calgary at the time, and I will tell you looking back even then, there's no way free trade was going to pass based on what I was listening to every day," he told CBC News.
But Hyder said the fact Mulroney had initially opposed free trade gave him enough credibility to persuade voters to give him another mandate.
"I think in an odd way that gave him tremendous credibility. It gave the concept and him personally credibility that he said, 'I changed my mind.' Not a lot of politicians change their mind."
Hyder said the agreement, and the subsequent North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) deal that brought Mexico into the fold, helped transform the Canadian economy.
WATCH: Brian Mulroney in his own words
"Where are we without free trade? Where is Canada today? And the answer is we would not be the prosperous country that we are," Hyder said.
Blais argued the free trade deals Mulroney helped paved the way to the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
"It really helped influence the way the global free trade architecture developed."
But not all Canadians are convinced free trade with the U.S. and Mexico was good for Canada.
MORE: ‘A consequential life’: Former leaders remember Brian Mulroney
Maude Barlow was one the most vocal opponents of free trade in the 1980s. In 1985, she co-founded the Council of Canadians, a citizens' group dedicated to the preservation of Canadian independence.
"I would argue that the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and NAFTA gutted the manufacturing sector in this country," she said.
While she staunchly stood against Mulroney's policies, Barlow said he passionately debated issues while maintaining civility with his opponents.
"I tell you it was really a very passionate fight about the soul of Canada," she said about free trade discussions.
READ: Quebecers remember Brian Mulroney as a born politician with a gift for connecting with people
"There's a civility that he had. Even when we were fighting, there was a civility which I think we could use today."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would eventually tap Mulroney for advice and help during the NAFTA renegotiations while Donald Trump was U.S. president. Canada finally signed the new NAFTA in 2019 and it came into force in mid-2020.
With a review of the deal on the horizon, in 2026, Hyder and Blais said the loss of Mulroney will be felt.
"When you lose a giant like Brian Mulroney, you lose that knowledge. And I don't think that we have had another prime minister … that really knew how to manage that relationship and knew how to manage the American psychology," Blais said.
"Trade deals are not about lawyers. They're not about the paper that they're written on. It is about the personal relationships between the leaders and I think what Mr. Mulroney was able to do was leverage decades of maintaining — not just building them but maintaining — those relationships," Hyder said.
"That was his gift." | | | ![[image of the Centre Block of Parliament Hill]](https://newsletters.cbc.ca/i/amf_cbc/project_93/mulroney1988.jpg?size=1212x0&w=BRUn5Y1xGIK3HeNLNWrCPxf50iEg) | Liberal Leader John Turner and Conservative Leader Mulroney point fingers at each other during a 1988 federal election campaign debate. (Fred Chartrand/The Canadian Press) | | | | | | | | | | |  | Coming up on Rosemary Barton Live | Rosemary Barton, CBC Chief Political Correspondent | | | | Canada’s 18th prime minister died on Thursday. It has been remarkable to hear the tributes for Brian Mulroney and to see lots of former political faces and even foes come out to speak about the man.
We will take a moment to pay tribute to him as well.
Jean Charest was his environment minister and someone who influenced him deeply and became a close friend.
Clyde Wells, former premier of Newfoundland, had a different relationship with Mulroney. In fact it’s fair to say they were political adversaries at a critical time in the country’s history.
We will speak to both of them.
On Thursday, the government announced its first steps towards universal pharmacare. So, we will also check in the Minister Holland about how quickly Canadians might see some classes of drugs become free.
It was a very busy week last week.
See you soon.
Rosie | | | More from CBC Politics |  | | The Supreme Court of Canada made a key privacy ruling Friday that means police must now first have a warrant or court order to obtain the numbers making up a person or organization's IP address. Read more | | | | | | The release earlier this week of hundreds of documents has pulled the curtain back on an explosive national security case that led to the firing of two scientists from the Winnipeg-based National Microbiology Lab. Read more | | | | | | Former prime minister Brian Mulroney, who died Thursday at the age of 84, was a vocal opponent of apartheid. Mulroney and his government consistently called for an end to white minority rule of South Africa's majority Black population and marshalled Western support for economic sanctions against Pretoria. Read more | | | | | | The Liberal government is extending a program that funds 400 local reporting jobs across the country. Read more | | | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
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