Former prime minister led Canada into accords with U.S.
Brian Mulroney, the former Canadian prime minister who oversaw the treaty that tore down barriers to trade across North America, has died. He was 84.
His daughter, Caroline Mulroney, announced the news on social media. “He died peacefully, surrounded by family,” she wrote.
As Canada’s leader from 1984 to 1993, Mulroney built a rapport with U.S. leaders that improved what had been a sometimes fractious relationship between neighbors. That laid the groundwork for the North American Free Trade Agreement and other major treaties on acid rain and ozone layer depletion.
While the trade pact known as NAFTA became a pillar of Canada’s economy, the Washington charm offensive that enabled it did not sit well with many Canadians, who viewed it as a surrender of sovereignty.
The environmental treaties spearheaded by Mulroney — in particular the 1991 accord on acid rain, signed with U.S. President George H.W. Bush — came to be regarded as significant first steps toward international climate change agreements. In 2006, a panel of prominent environmentalists named Mulroney Canada’s “greenest” prime minister. In his acceptance speech, Mulroney said his ability to work closely with the U.S. administration was crucial to his success.
“It isn’t by lecturing the Americans on their record on emissions reduction that we will succeed,” he said,
“especially when our own record is nearly twice as bad as theirs.”
Mulroney’s international achievements contrasted with a more turbulent record in domestic affairs.
His government introduced a widely disliked national sales tax and embarked on an ill-fated attempt to renew Canada’s constitution. The failure of constitutional negotiations helped to revive the question of Quebec separatism, leading to a 1995 referendum in which voters rejected independence by the narrowest of margins.
A deep recession in the early 1990s proved fatal for Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives. He left office in June 1993, and months later the party was drubbed in an election, going from a parliamentary majority to just two seats. Massive budget deficits accumulated during his nine years in office left behind a debt crisis that necessitated deep spending cuts in the mid-1990s by the Liberal government of Jean Chretien.
The son of an electrician, Mulroney was born on March 20, 1939, in the small Quebec town of Baie-Comeau, and was raised in French and English.
He studied law at Laval University in Quebec, and was then hired by a prestigious Montreal law firm. He launched his first political leadership bid in 1976 but lost to Joe Clark, who went on to become prime minister for a short time.
Mulroney stayed in the private sector, but returned to politics to wrest the Progressive Conservative leadership from Clark in 1983. The following year, he led the party to its first majority government election victory since the 1950s.
As prime minister, Mulroney quickly befriended then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan, a relationship that paved the way for a free trade agreement that was later expanded to include Mexico.
In one 1985 meeting that became known as the Shamrock Summit due to their shared Irish backgrounds, Mulroney and Reagan famously sang “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” on stage. The performance was supposed to symbolize the strong partnership between the two countries; critics saw it as evidence of Mulroney’s docility toward the U.S.
The NAFTA accord signed in the early 1990s brought Canada new export opportunities, made its businesses more competitive and helped attract foreign investment. It was renegotiated under U.S. President Donald Trump.