Brian Mulroney was a prime minister who mattered in the world

The passing of Brian Mulroney on Thursday was a moment that caused me to reflect on the role that individuals can play in shaping the events of their times, and to not merely be carried along by them.

For me personally, he was a political opponent, of course. But he was never an enemy, political or otherwise. He was an enormous personality who used his time in office to make some very big bets that he believed were right for Canada.

In the great election of 1988, he risked his government on convincing Canadians that free trade would work in their favour. I believe that history has proven him right. When NAFTA was under threat decades later, it was a Team Canada effort that succeeded in saving it, renewing it as the USMCA.

Mulroney also took the unpopular step of reforming Canada’s tax system by introducing the GST. Although it was much reviled (and criticized by my party), the GST enabled us to balance the budget and build the fiscal strength to weather the global recession that struck in 2008.

Importantly, he used the force of his powerful personality to become a close confidant of two U.S. presidents, ultimately delivering eulogies at the funerals of both Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. Those friendships ensured that Canada mattered to the United States, enabling not only free trade but the binational treaty on acid rain that was so important to Canadians, as well as managing many other issues in the Canada-u.s. relationship, small and large.

His influence with Reagan was highlighted to me one day, when I was foreign affairs minister, by my then counterpart U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who had previously served as Reagan’s national security advisor.

“I would have the president fully briefed on why Canada’s Arctic sovereignty claims were misguided,” Powell recalled to me. “Brian would come to the White House and bring rolls of maps that he would show the president, and convince him of his case!”

His passing is an opportunity to remember that political adversaries need not be enemies

Despite his ideological and personal alignment with Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in Britain, Mulroney was an international champion of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and spoke forcefully in support of human rights more generally. This was a prime minister that mattered both at home and abroad.

Rest in peace, sir. Your friends and opponents alike hold you in high regard.