Mulroney did ‘good job’ as prime minister, according to 83 per cent of Canadians: poll
Most Canadians approve of Brian Mulroney’s performance as prime minister, with a striking 83 per cent of those polled in the days after his passing saying Mulroney did a “good job” as the 18th leader of the country.
More than 80 per cent in every age group had a positive view of Mulroney’s handling of key policy priorities. “Perhaps even more notable, at least three quarters of every major political party expressed a positive feeling about Mr. Mulroney’s record,” according to pollster Spark Insights.
Respondents were asked how they viewed Mulroney’s handling of five policy challenges: the Canada-u.s. free trade deal, the Acid Rain Treaty, Mulroney’s sustained efforts to end apartheid, the introduction of the highly unpopular Goods and Services Tax and his attempts at constitutional reform first with the Meech Lake and then the Charlottetown accords.
“Brian Mulroney was colourful and some of his major policy initiatives were pretty controversial,” Spark Advocacy’s chief strategy officer Bruce Anderson said in a release.
“But he maintained a conviction that his effort to push policies that were of doubtful popularity in the moment was the right thing to do and over time might also win more public acceptance.”
The online poll of 1,700 Canadians was conducted between March 12 and 15.
Mulroney died on Feb. 29 at age 84.
When he took office in 1984, Mulroney captured the largest majority in Canadian history, wining 211 of 282 seats.
By 1992, his approval rating had dipped to 12 per cent, the lowest ever recorded at the time for a prime minister. He resigned in 1993 and was replaced by Kim Campbell.
Among his most-quoted quips: “If your only objective is to be popular, you’re going to be popular, but you will be known as the Prime Minister who achieved nothing.”
Anderson, a long-time political strategist and pollster, did a lot of polling in the day on free trade, the GST, and the Meech Lake and Charlottetown accords. “I know how controversial those policy ideas were at the time,” he said an interview.
Political battle lines were drawn. “Canadians weren’t sure that free trade was going to work out. … The GST was as unpopular a tax idea for a good long while as any tax idea that I’ve seen,” Anderson said.
Today, “people are looking back (at Mulroney) and saying, on the balance of things, we think he tried to do useful things for the country.”
Overall, 87 per cent of Liberals polled viewed Mulroney’s overall record as positive. His performance had the support of 90 per cent of Bloc Québécois supporters, and 85 per cent of Conservatives.
Public support for a Canada-u.s. trade deal was close to a 50-50 split at the time it was negotiated. In the Spark Advocacy poll, 85 per cent saw Mulroney’s negotiation of the trade deal in a positive light.
On the federal goods and services tax, an extraordinarily controversial tax reform when it took effect in 1991, 63 per cent of those polled viewed the Mulroney policy in a positive light.
More than 80 per cent had positive feelings on the late prime minister’s efforts to fight apartheid and acid rain.
Even the youngest age group, 18 to 29, felt Mulroney did a good job (85 per cent) overall on the policy package.