An unappreciated political giant
The ancient wisdom is that a man trustworthy in little things will be trustworthy in great things. The virtues hidden in ordinary circumstances are revealed in extraordinary ones. The public life of the late Brian Mulroney, 18th prime minister of Canada, was somewhat confounding in that respect.
The man who was visionary, principled, courageous — even sacrificial — in his public policy agenda was regarded by many Canadians as the opposite because of more personal matters. The man who, after leaving office, eulogized Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan and George H.W. Bush at their funerals also sat in the dock at the Oliphant inquiry, answering under oath questions about his business dealings with the dubious Karlheinz Schreiber.
Mulroney’s long post-premiership — more than 30 years — ought to have magnified, rather than obscured, the monumental achievements of his time in office. His impressive record in office deserved a better retirement than he gave it. Now, upon his death, his years in office at a critical turning point for the West are getting the attention they deserve.
By the late 1970s, the political tide was turning against the expansive state. Generationally consequential conservative figures were on the rise. Even communist China was part of the story, with Deng Xiaoping moving away from central planning. The Americans got Reagan, the Brits Margaret Thatcher.
Did Canada miss out? Lady Thatcher herself might have thought so, describing Mulroney in her memoirs as a “Progressive Conservative” who put “too much emphasis on the adjective and not enough on the noun.”
Fair enough. Mulroney — only 45 when elected PM — had not spent a lifetime consolidating his convictions as much cultivating contacts. But there was no plausible Reagan or Thatcher available after Joe Clark fumbled the conservative moment away seven months into his government. Clark, on his best day as a conservative, was a less exciting version of Ted Heath, the former Tory PM whom Thatcher despatched. Mulroney,
in despatching Clark, ensured that Canada’s participation in the conservative movement of the 1980s was not a pallid Heathism.
While not employing the muscular rhetoric of either Reagan or Thatcher, Mulroney implemented a thoroughgoing conservative agenda on trade, economic deregulation, privatization and tax reform. On that he was a match for other conservative leaders of that period.
His most difficult achievement was restoring Canada’s fiscal health after years of Liberal profligacy. Canada was in an operating deficit when he came in; federal government expenditure exceeded revenue even before interest payments on the debt. Mulroney restored an operating surplus, though deficits still grew because of increasing debt service — especially at a time of high interest rates to fight inflation.
Mulroney’s most politically costly achievement was tax reform, including the GST, a sound tax measure that was electorally lethal. Almost alone in the world, Canada has a significant value-added sales tax that is visible to consumers, instead of being hidden in the purchase price. It was the right thing to do and the right way to do it, and it took Mulroney and his party down to unprecedented levels of voter unpopularity. No man chasing easy popularity would have done that.
The combination of fiscal restraint, the GST and the killing of inflation meant that Canada was ready in the mid-1990s when deficit reduction became urgent. An era of budget surpluses, solid economic growth, low inflation and low interest rates followed. Mulroney’s successors rightfully took credit for that, but his contribution was essential.
The constitutional file was the Mulroney coalition’s undoing. When Donald Brittain of the National Film Board was Canada’s quasi-official documentarian, he produced a magnificent three-part film, The Champions, chronicling the decades-long battles of Pierre Trudeau and René Lévesque. Had he not died in 1989, Brittain might have produced another documentary featuring Mulroney and his longtime friend Lucien Bouchard.
Bouchard turned against Mulroney, against the PC Party and against Canada in the aftermath of Meech, founding the Bloc Québécois and almost leading Quebec out of Canada in the 1995 referendum. Canada survived. The PC Party didn’t.
That was the underappreciated dynamic of the Mulroney years. He employed his formidable negotiation skills to broker a solution to the constitutional question at the very time that the rise of populist nationalism was threatening the historic Canadian model of brokerage politics.
Americans date the recent rise of populist politics to the 1992 presidential campaigns of Patrick Buchanan and Ross Perot. The earthquake in Canada was a more telling sign, when the 1993 election obliterated the party of Sir John A. Macdonald. Canadians don’t consider themselves global trendsetters, but the rise of Reform and the Bloc put Canada at the head of the populist queue. Of course, in perfect Canadian style, the populist outburst led to further entrenching the establishment Liberal party in power. Mulroney never saw it coming. Few did.
Mulroney’s coalition has never been put back together. No one has really tried. Jean Chrétien got three majorities while the conservatives were in disarray, and since his departure there have been five minority governments in seven elections, the past two scraping by with not even a third of the popular vote and with fewer votes than the opposition. Mulroney’s departure was not only personal; it meant the end of how politics had been practised in Canada since Confederation.
His electoral record stands — the only Conservative to win backto-back majorities since Sir John A. won four in a row. Not even Trudeau, father or son, did that.
As it turned out, Feb. 29 — the 40th anniversary of Pierre Trudeau’s leap-year resignation — marked not a repeat by his son, but the definitive leave-taking of Brian Mulroney. Both former prime ministers had good timing. Trudeau had two sons born on Christmas Day — Justin and Alexandre. Mulroney also had a son while in office; Nicholas was born on Sept. 4, 1985, the first anniversary of his father’s massive election win.
The giants of the 1980s have now largely passed. Pierre Trudeau began his election night speech after winning his rematch with Clark: “Welcome to the 1980s!”
Truth be told, Trudeau’s return extended the 1970s for Canadians. It was with Mulroney that Canada joined the 1980s.
MULRONEY’S COALITION HAS NEVER BEEN PUT BACK TOGETHER.