Brace for return of Mulroney legacy
Caroline Mulroney says the most important political advice she received was from her father.
“Listen to me, and listen to me carefully,” he told her. “Your riding is big. Drive safe.” Well, there you have it. Brian Mulroney, concerned dad. A dad first and foremost, says his daughter.
The former prime minister is a lot more than that to a lot of voters in this country, and a return to the debates over the polarizing legacy of Brian Mulroney is inevitable.
Caroline Mulroney may be understandably proud of her father’s legacy, and she says she is “Caroline,” her own person. But make no mistake, she will be towing that legacy of her father back into the public eye as she seeks the PC leadership in Ontario. That’s the way of dynastic politics. For today’s Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, that may be a welcome distraction from questions he is facing about Stephen Harper.
There was a time when Mulroney’s name was so toxic on Parliament Hill that Harper warned his caucus not to contaminate themselves by dealing with the former Conservative prime minister on the eve of an inquiry into his dealing with German lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber and the little matter of money being passed in envelopes.
In essence, according to one 2016 poll, that was Canada’s most unpopular prime minister telling his caucus to stay away from Canada’s second most unpopular prime minister.
Now, the current Conservative deputy leader, Lisa Raitt, was gently easing Caroline Mulroney into the public eye with a candy-coated Q&A Monday evening, and Harper’s former House leader, Peter Van Loan, is advising the prospective Tory leader, who is running in his federal riding of York-Simcoe.
Brian Mulroney still polarizes years later, but the passage of time often has a salubrious effect.
Once seen as overly beholden to U.S. presidents, Mulroney is now often seen as a prime minister who used close ties to Washington to Canada’s benefit.
As Harper gutted environmental regulations, the Mulroney years began to take on a green tinge.
His once-reviled GST has remained untouchable.
And his hated free trade pact with the U.S., subject of a bitter 1988 election battle, has never been more popular with Canadians as Donald Trump threatens to gut NAFTA.
His recent defence of the trade deal at a U.S. Congressional hearing was vintage Mulroney and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has enlisted his help on NAFTA.
But there is also the matter of accepting the envelopes stuffed with $225,000 from Schreiber, something a 2010 inquiry found to be “inappropriate.”
“I was fallible enough on many days, all too human on some others,” Mulroney once told a party gathering after he left office. It all comes with the legacy. Scheer has demonstrated a singlemindedness as opposition leader that has perplexed some observers, but a strategy the party maintains is working.
Before the House rose for Christmas, Conservatives went after Finance Minister Bill Morneau daily on questions of ethics and alleged conflict of interest. Morneau is still standing. Since the House has returned, Scheer and his caucus have spent every day demanding Trudeau repay the taxpayers money spent on his trip to the Aga Khan’s private island.
When he met reporters to make that demand again Tuesday, questions came about the party’s decision, specifically Harper’s role, in allowing MP Rick Dykstra to run in the 2015 election even when it was known he was facing sexual assault allegations.
Harper released a statement saying he understood an investigation into Dykstra had been completed and he couldn’t justify removing him as a candidate. Since then, more information has come to light, Harper said, indicating the investigation may not have been complete.
Scheer is trying to make the controversy go away by turning it over to a third-party investigator, but he has yet to find that third party.
Scheer is still struggling to establish himself in his own right, and he must ensure he is not seen as Harper-lite. He doesn’t need the return of his predecessor in the middle of a #MeToo scandal on the Hill. In this case, Mulroney could actually help.
There are reasons to believe a new chapter in Canadian dynastic politics could be unfolding.
Mulroney, in predicting Trudeau’s 2015 victory, said those who thought the then-Liberal leader had no platform were wrong.
“His program is that he’s not Stephen Harper,” Mulroney said.
Today, there are those who say his daughter has no plan.
But they’re wrong. She has a program.
She’s not Kathleen Wynne.