Patronage issue turned 1984 debate around
`I pounced,' Mulroney remembers
It was a rare moment of fate in Canadian politics, a clever quip destined to be mentioned every time the importance of televised debates came up, as the best ever example of a rhetorical knockout blow.
The man on the receiving end was John Turner, the former Liberal prime minister who died on Friday. He had just claimed in a leaders debate that he had “no option” to refuse patronage appointments made by his retiring predecessor, Pierre Trudeau.
“You had an option, sir,” came the reply, emphasized with a pointing finger.
From the forced formality of the “sir” to the smirk it wiped off its target's face, and from the reminder of Liberal baggage to the unspoken suggestion that a different leader would act differently, it was a line for the history books. The line was so good, although unplanned, that the speaker said it twice.
On the occasion of Turner's death, the man who delivered it, former prime minister Brian Mulroney, offered respectful memories of the moment that came to symbolize their political rivalry.
“John was a great gentleman. He never stooped to personal abuse or vicious invective the way you see today in the House of Commons,” Mulroney told the National Post.
Mulroney described knowing Turner well in the Montreal in the 1960s, where they were both lawyers.
“From the very beginning in Montreal, people saw qualities that are necessary to be a prime minister,” Mulroney said, and recalled being an observer at the 1968 Liberal convention. “Turner had a lot of pizzazz and looked like a movie star. He was a man of principle and if he'd won he'd have done extremely well.”
Years later, Turner was prime minister in 1984, going into the debate up 14 points in the polls, Mulroney recalled.
“Everyone was predicting a majority Liberal government. The English debate was going pretty well for him until he raised the issue of patronage. I was able to turn it around. He was carrying all the water for Pierre Trudeau and all the reasons that people didn't like Trudeau were bundled up in that patronage issue.”
“I pounced and berated him for not saying no to a horrible package of appointments. That night we went from being 14 points behind to being 18 points ahead. There was a direct line from that TV debate to 211 Conservatives and 40 Liberals,” Mulroney said.
He said it was entirely spontaneous. “I had no idea I was going to do that. I never expected it but he was vulnerable,” he said. “I think his political instincts were dulled after retiring for seven years (and working in law). If you take Wayne Gretzky off the ice for seven years, he wouldn't be the same guy.”
Mulroney said he and Turner remained friendly when they met later in life, although he said Turner remained set in his views that free trade with the United States had been wrong for Canada.
“John Turner was a man high principles and he lived those principles,” Mulroney said.