Mulroney broke the cardinal rule
ANALYSIS A friend in need needs protecting from himself Newman book flap reflects universal political truths
OTTAWA— It’s hard to measure scientifically, but public opinion — even in Liberal Ottawa — seems to be tilting toward Brian Mulroney in this week’s flap over a book filled with raw and ribald quotes from the former prime minister.
That in itself is an indication that this fuss is more than merely the product of nostalgia in the tiny, often incestuous world of federal politics.
Twelve years ago, when Mulroney left office, it would have been hard to imagine any great surge of sympathy for the man. This week, even people in Prime Minister Paul Martin’s circle were saying that they felt for Mulroney; that he didn’t deserve this stunning, surprise release of decade- old remarks he had considered private.
It’s more than pity at work here. Something else is going on. While old Ottawa hands were delighted simply to be reminded of Mulroney’s more colourful era, the wider conversations provoked by Peter C. Newman’s book, The Secret Mulroney Tapes, are as much about the current political climate in Ottawa as they are about the past. The controversy has touched on some universal themes in daily political life — the place of loyalty, friendship and trust, for instance. It has people talking with renewed interest about the dividing lines between the political and reporting classes. Most of all, though, it has vividly underscored the cardinal rule of life in federal politics: your friends can be far more dangerous than your enemies. And, as a corollary, if not the overarching rule: the person who can cause you the most damage is right there staring back at you in the mirror every morning. No wonder Martin and his tight circle of friends might feel a bit rattled. Mulroney thought of Newman as a friend. The feeling was mutual, as Newman demonstrated
would eventually be used to add
colour and texture to any future
biography.
Instead, Newman simply transcribed them and let them loose
for all Canadians to see this fall
in their raw and vivid detail.
Mulroney emerges as an odd
mixture of naïveté and hubris,
obsessed with his own reputation and place in history.
“ By the time history is done
looking at this and you look at
my achievements as opposed to
any others, certainly no one will
ever be in Sir. John A.’ s league —
but my nose will be a little ahead
of most in terms of achievements,” he told Newman.
Mulroney, so skilled, savvy and
sophisticated in the intricate
and dark arts of politics, somehow forgot the most
basic rule. Perhaps
that’s behind some of
the sympathy being expressed in Ottawa this
week. His failing was
all too human; the foreheadPeter Newman inscription to Mulroney slapping kind we
all feel when we ignore even this week, when he sent a
our own best judgment. His regret, heartfelt letter to Mulroney to it’s said, is profound. accompany the surprise book
Friendship is the basis of the delivery at his home.
form and substance of this book.
L. Ian MacDonald, Mulroney’s
Mulroney is fixated on friends biographer, revealed in the
who turned on him, high- powered Montreal Gazette this week how friends in international circles Newman inscribed the copy he and people who just won’t sent to his old ( and now former)
be his friends ( like all the members friend. “ For Brian: At last Canadians of the “ lazy, cynical, selfserving” will see you for the warm, media). funny and human person that
But he said all this to a friend of you are.”
the worst kind one can have in
Mulroney, a chronic phone- aholic,
politics. No, not a journalist. It is had thought he was free to
possible for friendships to exist blow off a little steam with his
there, despite what the hardcore pal in his many late- night phone cynics may argue. calls through the 1980s and early
The worst friends, Mulroney 1990s. He reportedly did not
should have known, are the believe Newman was taping him
friends who don’t save you from or that when he was being recorded,
yourself. Newman wasn’t a the conversations
friend who worked to help keep Mulroney’s excesses in check or who challenged his grandiose and small obsessions. He simply was there: listening, taping and letting him ramble on. That should have been Mulroney’s clue. Newman, for his part, also seems a bit baffled this week by how badly things have gone; how the newspapers’ sensationalistic cherry- picking of all the negative Mulroney remarks made it impossible to see the book as a portrait of a “ warm, funny and human” person.
Imagine. A journalist caught off guard by journalism. A friend done in by a friend. A politician who forgot to play politics. These are the delicious ironies that are feeding the ravenous interest in this story this week in the nation’s capital. Some stories can never get told too often and some lessons need to be continually relearned.