Brian Mulroney
(18th)
Date Elected to Parliament: |
August 29, 1983 |
Date of Maiden Speech: |
September 12, 1983 |
Date Sworn In: |
September 17, 1984 |
Date Left Office: |
June 24, 1993 |
Who could fail to be charmed by Brian Mulroney in close quarters? A student and practiced practitioner of charm offences, Brian Mulroney combined the Irish charm of a ‘pixie’ with a hard steel edges of an old time Tammany Hall style pol. Up front and personal in all his exchanges, it was his studied charm in his academic, legal, and business careers before politics, during his public service, and after in his successful post political business career that was the alchemy that brought him success and painted over his gaffs and egregious conduct. The political and business networks he assiduously built were the mainstay of his success in all his varied careers.
Politics in Canada can be summed up in one word – ‘confidence’. To gain political power in party politics, a leader must gain and retain the ‘confidence’ of his small coterie and more so, his political peers. The national caucus of a political leader is the key to sustain ‘confidence’ of its members. No modern political leader was more adept at maintaining the loyalty and the visceral support of his party caucus. Mulroney, by nature, treated his caucus as he treated each large family with patient attention to detail and respect. Every Wednesday in Ottawa, while Parliament was in session, each national party caucus consisting of Party members from the Commons and the Senate, meet to weekly coalesce around the Leader and his party to gain their inspiration and direction from the Leader who is last to speak in caucus knits together a consensus and sets the weekly political agenda.
Only in Ottawa can one learn how important ‘caucus’ is to hold ‘confidence’ and support from a Party’s Members of Parliament. The Party membership, of volunteers and paid staff, is peripheral to this vital Parliamentary core. The caucus is the key of ‘responsible government’. If the caucus is divided, or weakened, a leader must bend to the prevailing winds or suffer defeat.
I was curious how Mulroney maintained such high levels of avid support within his caucus despite his ups and downs. I regularly queried my Conservative Senate colleagues as well as other members of the Tory caucus to discover how he did it, week after week. These astute Senate colleagues were equally enthralled of Mulroney’s techniques while maintaining their skepticism, Finlay MacDonald, a Maritimer, and Norman Atkins, key member of the Conservative Big Blue Machine for Ontario and Michael Meighan, Michel Cogger, Jean Bazin, old time friends from Mulroney’s Quebec academic circle. Finlay and Norman were astute pals who each lived through a number of leaders from Diefenbaker to Stanfield to Clark and then Mulroney. Sam Wakim, never elected but a university schoolmate of Mulroney, also in brief encounters would regale me with the magic Mulroney touch out of the public eye. Most acutely analytical was Lowell Murray, a Senate colleague, school chum from their university days at St. Xavier University who astutely compared Mulroney and other Conservative leaders, especially John Diefenbaker.
Mulroney treated each caucus meeting with delicacy, preparation, patience, and careful home work. While he always arranged for a rousing welcome to each caucus meeting, Mulroney was a good and patient listener. His whips kept him up-to-date on any wavering caucus supporter. Telephone calls, illness, notes of thanks, congratulations, assistance with personal matters, especially family matters, were all part of his regular purview. He knew the mood swings of each member and he kept himself closely informed. Mulroney worked diligently at this task. He would reach out in time of need to offer solace or assistance or congratulations to friends and sometimes foes. Kim Campbell, his successor, was captivated by Mulroney in caucus yet, estimated his need to orchestrate applause on his entrance to each caucus meeting.
There is a backstory to his focus on ‘caucus’. Loyalty to the leader as personified by the travails of John Diefenbaker, was never far from Mulroney’s uncomfortable thoughts. He had been loyal to Diefenbaker until the Dalton Camp revolt and saga against Diefenbaker’s leadership. Mulroney observed loyalty close hand, at the outset of his career as a party loyalist to Diefenbaker. He noted, with dismay, the history of divisions within the Conservative caucus, and how Diefenbaker’s Cabinet turned on him and how ultimately that brought Diefenbaker down led by Dalton and other outside forces. Diefenbaker’s caucus on the whole remained loyal to him. This caucus experience was seared in Mulroney’s memory. He observed how Diefenbaker flagged in his efforts to deal with each Cabinet member. Mulroney was a loyalist by nature. Mulroney valued loyalty and gave it in return. He clung to loyalty to Diefenbaker until Diefenbaker’s leadership was no longer tenable, still working behind the scenes keeping his views from public scrutiny. But Diefenbaker never forgot any slight or act of disloyalty. Diefenbaker’s final speech at the Conservative leadership convention pitting Clark, Wagner, and Mulroney saw Mulroney, still unelected, lead in the race until Diefenbaker spoke and mentioned “lack of experience” that was Mulroney’s weak spot. Mulroney knew he was sunk when Diefenbaker alluded to ‘lack of experience’. Mulroney came back later and learned from his errors.
Mulroney was disciplined and focused, and more so due to his elegant and intelligent wife, Mila, who changed him from a party-loving rogue to the astute focused well-mannered disciplined politician he became.161 They quickly had a large family of robust talented kids. Not much a book reader, unlike Clark, Mulroney, like Diefenbaker, would devour newspapers, relished political gossip, and endlessly worked the phone lines and kept the threads of loyalty and allegiance tied to him.
Mulroney, as each leader does, attempts to outdo his predecessors. In this case, Mulroney was in awe of Trudeau, his style and strong policies, especially Trudeau’s signature legacy – the Repatriation of the Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedom. As a Quebecer, he envisioned a path for Quebec different from Trudeau, more in tune with his early Union Nationalist ties
Numerous efforts were made by Mulroney to outdo Trudeau. This, I believe, motivated Mulroney’s Meech Lake and Charlottetown constitutional gambits. Their failure did not deter his desire to exceed Trudeau on the Constitution dossier, especially in the experience of Quebec under Rene Lévesque, the P.Q. separationist, and later under Bourassa who reneged on Pearson’s Victoria Accord. Constitutional reform had eluded Diefenbaker and Pearson, but Trudeau succeeded. Mulroney was a close witness to Trudeau’s success. He avidly sought Quebec’s support, after Trudeau had out maneuvered separatist Rene Lévesque who refused to approve Trudeau’s version of Repatriation, Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and a revamped Constitution. Mulroney yearned to obtain Quebec’s full-throated approval for constitutional reform. Mulroney took up the canard of Levesque that Quebec had been betrayed on Trudeau’s constitutional reform – “stabbed in the back” was his rant. To do this required strong elements of constitutional rearrangements that would enhance provincial powers and weaken the federal central government. So, he tilted to Quebec’s self-declared concerns via Meech Lake. Meech Lake would lessen federal powers and give Quebec ‘special status’. The country was split in all parties on a grant that extended powers to the provinces, especially Quebec, that would weaken the federal government (already highly decentralized) along ideological lines. Mulroney argued this would resolve the Quebec separatist impulse forever.
After retiring from public office, Pierre Trudeau returned for only one time to Parliament. He had kept his silence during his retirement. Trudeau was not enamored by Mulroney less so his Constitution ideas. He spoke out against Meech Lake in an open Senate Hearing in an amazing three-hour presentation and stopped Meech Lake cold. I had a small hand in organizing that event and like Trudeau, was vitriolically opposed to Meech Lake. It went too far. Canada was already still too decentralized in the division of powers. Mulroney’s Charlottetown constitutional gambit also went down to defeat. I felt we didn’t even have a common market in Canada. No central market securities regulator rather a hodge-podge of provincial security authorities. Both Meech and Charlottetown would deter market efficiency and growth, especially invite more interprovincial trade barriers I concluded.
Mulroney needed another showstopper after his failure on the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Constitutional gambit. He found it in a Free Trade Agreement with U.S.A. Using his undoubtable charm and friendship to woo Reagan with open adulation and Irish persuasion, Mulroney sang ‘Irish eyes were smiling’ to Reagan’s delight. The FTA was his legacy and without his charm offence on Reagan, it would not have been possible.
Mulroney learned another lesson from Diefenbaker’s political spiraling descent. Mulroney wanted to neutralize as best he could Liberal mandarins in the public service that Diefenbaker felt had undermined his government which had a ring of truth. So, Mulroney set up a parallel network of highly paid political appointees that reached down into each department to report directly to him and the PMO. These political appointees received the same remuneration as Deputy Ministers. And it worked for him, for a time. But their excesses and in some cases, their inexperience in government, contributed to his political demise.
Mulroney picked up Diefenbaker’s lead on South Africa. He acted as well as lobbied to create an international consensus on freeing Mandela that led to his release from prison and ultimately the demise of apartheid Africa regime under the Boers. It was a sterling historic accomplishment for Mulroney and a tribute to his persistence and diplomatic skills. Without his skill and charm, it would not have happened as quickly as it did.
Mulroney decided early on as a youth in high school to become Prime Minister. Every step in his career was a step in that direction. He had a picture taken with Diefenbaker as a high school political activist which he cherished. He was ambitious and worked at developing friends especially in high places – at school and in his community. He never let up.
Mulroney was born in Baie-Comeau, Quebec, far away on Quebec’s north shore, into a family of Irish origins and lower middle-class working stock. He early learned French on the streets and in lower school. His father, Ben, who he revered, was an electrician in the local paper plant owned by The Chicago Tribune’s owner, General Robert McCormick. It was a one company town. He lived with his family in a small company owned house. Mulroney was ambitious, quick-witted with a gift of self-promotion. He learned to network early, gaining an ever-widening circle of peers, elders, and admirers. He planned and plotted every step up the ladder. He attended St. Francis Xavier University at the early age of seventeen and became a campus activist and debater. He scored well enough in academics to apply for a Rhodes Scholarship though both his academics and sports acumen would not make him a serious contender for this revered scholastic prize.
There were other setbacks along the way. He went to Dalhousie Law School in Nova Scotia where he expanded his circle of friends; but flunked. Not deterred, he moved to Laval University in Quebec City to start on his law degree once again, enlarging his circle of friends and increasing his network as a young Conservative activist. He even joined the Union Nationale to deepen his Quebec ties. He became close friends with its leader Daniel Johnson. After graduation, he decided to make his move to Montreal as a lawyer, where he gained a position with Quebec’s largest law firm on condition – that he pass the Quebec Bar. On the third try, he finally made it. His law firm admired his political activism and charm which he worked on its stodgy senior partners and who decided to point the budding lawyer and commercial litigator towards Labour Law, just becoming an area of legal specialization as labour issues plagued Quebec became front page news. Suddenly he found his niche. With his charm, network, and negotiating skills, he became an instant star and a skilled mediator. An early observer of television, he worked on his television techniques, modulating his voice and gestures to meet its singular demands.
Over and over again, his easy charm and skills won plaudits for settling contentious labour issues. Though he acted for management, he nurtured his friendship with labour leaders like Louis Laberge which allowed him to make fair and lasting settlements, a tribute to his skill and charm. He forged a tight personal relationship with Paul Desmarais, soon to be a mega mover in Quebec. Desmarais suffered a long devastating strike at LaPresse which lost Desmarais bundles of money. Mulroney forged a settlement that Desmarais initially disagreed with, but quickly returned LaPresse to profit. Desmarais, a conservative by nature and perhaps in politics, became and remained his largest booster.
When Robert Cliche was named to investigate labour issues in Quebec, Mulroney joined him in his first prolonged public exposure. He had a talent for dissecting complex issues in public.
Mulroney went on to serve as CEO of Iron Ore Company that would further enhance his business skills and broaden his network even wider.
I first encountered Brian Mulroney and Joe Clark at the 1968 Liberal leadership convention where they were both interested observers. Later at each encounter, Mulroney was friendly, witty, and charming. No matter how busy, he would pause to chat and exchange political gossip.
One episode in the Senate made me ashamed of myself in the Mulroney era. And still upsets and rankles when I think about it. The Liberals decided to slam Mulroney’s Consumer Tax initiative, the GST. The NDP were more vitriolic than Liberals as they felt that a Consumer Tax unfairly taxed the poor. The NDP praised the Senate to hold up the legislation, the Senate they had heretofore detested and had called for abolishment. After a raucous debate in the Commons, the Consumer Tax bill passed, coming to the Senate for approval. NDP came over and for the first time, called on the ‘hated’ Senate to stop this measure.
The Speaker, Gill Molgat, a close friend of Jean Chrétien, as Allan MacEachen the leader plotted from the side lines, led the revolt in the Senate with cow bells, whistles and raucous interruptions when the legislation was introduced and debated. I participated. Afterwards, I was ashamed and I swore I would never be led to demean Parliament again. In the end, Mulroney succeeded, and this measure gave financial stability to the federal coffers allowing Parliament to expand the social net, healthcare, and aid to universities, both notable achievements – Mulroney legacies.
All and said, Mulroney will be remembered more for his accomplishments than his defeats or setbacks.
In 1988, Mulroney arranged for the G7, the economic summit of world leaders including Reagan and Thatcher, to be held in Toronto. Mayor Art Eggleton asked me to chair the Toronto Preparatory Committee to organize the world media and some side events to showcase Toronto to the world. I told Art that was not a good idea. I was a known activist Liberal and Senator and this was a Mulroney Conservative event. But I had an idea. I would co-chair a preparatory committee to liaise with Mayor of his office if I could get a well-known Conservative to co-chair to liaise with the Conservative government in Ottawa. “Who do you have in mind?” asked Art. I said, “Trevor Eyton”, a staunch conservative, now a Senator, and an old friend. He agreed immediately. I enlisted Trevor who quickly accepted. We needed to fundraise to underwrite hospitality for the media which Trevor led with ease and dispatch. Our main focus was to commander a large parking lot opposite the Convention Centre on Front Street where some events would be held. We arranged for John Bitove also a staunch Conservative and restaurateur to help organize a twenty-four hours food and beverage tent composed of food stalls from every part of the globe to demonstrate the diversity of Toronto. I was the lone Liberal, other than Art Eggleton, to be invited to several of the large dinners for the world leaders organized by Mulroney and his government. At each event, which Mulroney chaired with wit and sophistication, especially with his conservative colleagues like Reagan and Thatcher, pointed out that these events were Conservative events except for one lone exception, a Liberal Senator, who he introduced with humour and gusto to the applause of his Conservative audience, and asked me to stand to demonstrate the tolerance Conservatives strived to demonstrate to their opponents.
One last anecdote. Years after Mulroney retired, he became a board member of several Fortune 500 companies in the United States. At a small luncheon in New York hosted by my friend, Gerry Tsai – a Wall Street wizard, I dined with a small group of business executives including two CEOs of major U.S.A. companies. When they heard I was a Canadian Senator, they both queried if I knew Brian Mulroney. “Why?” I asked. Both told me that he was the best director that they ever had on their board. Mulroney was always well-prepared, pointed in his questions, and undertook every task handed to him with skill, expertise, and conciseness. Mulroney would take the initiative on other corporate tasks. I was not surprised. Charming and effective and smart. That is Brian Mulroney. My old friend Peter Munk repeatedly told me how effective Brian Mulroney was as a board member on Barrick Gold. He took on complex tasks and settled irascible and even implacable problems for Munk who became his greatest fan.
And a final anecdote about Mila. Whenever I encountered her after Mulroney was Prime Minister and when he retired and Mila was with him, she recognized me and never failed to ask me about my wife Carole and what was her latest charitable challenge. Mila never missed a beat. Together they were redoubtable – a charming couple, a devastating duo – obviously respectful of each other’s talents.
Mulroney left the Progressive Conservative Party in budget deficit after the leadership was handed to Kim Campbell who failed to meet his or her expectations. Mulroney had stayed in office too long, a flaw too often shared by most other leaders.
Yet, he left an admirable and formidable legacy on trade,162 economic growth, reduction of outmoded Crown corporations and regulations, relations with United States, Germany, and U.K. and advocacy against apartheid in South Africa. History will treat him better than his departure from government.
Mulroney continues to be engaged in a wide range of activities, charitable business and politics, while maintaining an ever-expanding superb rolodex, especially amongst Republicans in the United States163 and other international political and business leaders. He was called by Justin Trudeau to privately advise him on the NAFTA negotiations with the Trump administration. It seems as well that Mulroney’s political DNA is alive in his daughter recently elected to the Ontario legislative, with no doubt, a bright leadership future ahead in Canadian politics. His other children are equally accomplished, poised, and fated to play roles on the public stage in some form or another. The Mulroney name is alive and well and the Mulroney charm has been inherited by all his offspring.
161Mulroney had an iron will. Supported by his equally strong-willed wife Mila, he overcame bouts of depression, stopped drinking to excess, and then quit smoking ‘cold turkey’.
162In addition to Free Trade Agreements, Mulroney entered into a number of FIPA agreements with Poland, Argentina, Hungary, and others. FIPA stands for Foreign Investment Promotion Agreements.
163Brian Mulroney was remarkably popular with American Republican Presidents and Congressional leaders. He was asked to do a eulogy for Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan, and George H. Bush which he did with grace and eloquence.
Brian Mulroney - Maiden Speech
