Life of Brian
TAUBE, MICHAEL
Life of Brian A comfortable breeze from north of the border. BY MICHAEL TAUBE Memoirs: 1939-1993 by Brian Mulroney Douglas Gibson, 1,152 pp. $50 In June 2004, the former Canadian prime...
...He joined the PC youth executive committee, and helped John Diefenbaker win his 1957 and 1958 federal election victories...
...He ran a brilliant campaign, crushing the Liberal leader John Turner and exposing Liberal weaknesses at every turn...
...Mulroney patched up his differences with former opponents—Clark, John Crosbie, and Michael Wilson, who had run against Mulroney for the PC leadership—and all played prominent roles in Mulroney’s cabinet...
...Brian Mulroney grew up in a non-political family...
...He acknowledged that PC ideology was “compatible with my own views” but was more struck by “the challenges that membership would represent...
...This period of political turmoil taught Mulroney a valuable lesson: “Caucus solidarity is indispensable for long-term success and only the leader can bring that about, provided he works at it relentlessly...
...He forged strong relationships with other leaders—Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Helmut Kohl—and repaired Canada’s mediocre reputation as a player on the world stage...
...When Mulroney came calling again in 1983, the PCs stood up and took notice...
...Mulroney put the focus squarely on rebuilding his party and working towards defeating the “one-party state” that the Liberals had created in Canada...
...He was an environmentalist, and signed an agreement on acid rain with the fi rst President Bush...
...The latter campaign stood as the biggest landslide victory in Canadian history—until Mulroney topped it in 1984...
...The Reform party, under the leadership of Preston Manning, blossomed and began to challenge the PCs for conservative support...
...He also faced innumerable challenges...
...He increased the role of private enterprise in Canada, and made the country desirable for foreign investors...
...At the same time, it’s a well-written and important book by one of Canada’s most interesting, colorful, and controversial leaders...
...And his government remained united until the end...
...And he won an incredible victory: 211 out of 288 parliamentary seats, and 50 percent of the popular vote...
...He brought together Blue Tories (right-leaning conservatives), Red Tories (left-leaning conservatives), and Canadians from all regions...
...Michael Taube, columnist and commentator, is a former speechwriter for Prime Minister Stephen Harper...
...He had never served as a member of Parliament, and did not have strong popular support...
...That was irrelevant...
...Even though this former prime minister had shared the world stage with powerful leaders, and was involved in issues that earned international coverage, Mulroney’s legacy in the United States rested squarely with a few politicians, business leaders, think tanks, and publications...
...His friend Lucien Bouchard, who he brought into federal politics, ultimately betrayed him and helped form a separatist political party, the Bloc Qu?b?cois...
...He defeated Clark in the leadership race...
...Mulroney ultimately lost the leadership fi ght to Joe Clark—then a fi erce political rival, later a political ally—but had given party members something to think about for the future...
...He advertises his successes, but is brutally honest about his failures...
...Ronald Reagan was a president who inspired his nation and transformed the world...
...He “rolled the dice” twice with the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords as a means to bring Quebec back into the constitution—and was unsuccessful both times...
...The Liberals had been in power for 20 years, and Mulroney likely saw an opportunity to help initiate political change in a country that was starved for it...
...They shared not only an Irish workingclass background, but also a similar vision of democracy, liberty, and freedom...
...As he writes, “I was determined to work closely with the former prime minister and his key supporters to ensure that any leadership-race bitterness was banished and forgotten...
...The Mulroney years (1984-93) were an astonishing period in Canadian history...
...Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, he was approached to join the campus Progressive Conservative (PC) party...
...politicians become true public servants only when they understand the limitations of power and acquire the humility that accompanies defeat...
...As Mulroney said, Reagan was “the leader we respected, the neighbor we admired and the friend we loved...
...That was the beginning of the Mulroney coalition...
...Even early in his political career, Mulroney was industrious and ambitious...
...But he was an inspiring speaker, and wanted to make an impression: As he said in one speech, “Democracy is best served by challenge and change...
...Like other party members, he had become disillusioned with Diefenbaker, who was “increasingly alienating both young voters and French Canadians...
...To his credit, these memoirs refl ect that view...
...I wanted everybody inside the PC tent...
...For many Americans, this was the fi rst real exposure they had to Brian Mulroney...
...He was seen as a fresh face beside Clark—who had served as prime minister for a mere eight months—and especially compared to Pierre Elliot Trudeau, the left-wing Liberal prime minister...
...The Memoirs are the man...
...When Mulroney retired in 1993, he said, “I did not always succeed, but I always tried to do what would be right for Canada in the long term—not what could be politically popular in the short term...
...To be fair, it’s a hefty volume with a signifi cant portion dedicated to his role in Canadian politics...
...He was a driving force in ending apartheid peacefully in South Africa...
...In the 1984 federal election, Mulroney described his philosophy to attain political success: It didn’t matter to me if you had supported me in the leadership or not...
...His parents, like many postwar Atlantic Canadians, traditionally supported the Liberal party...
...After a few years practicing law, Mulroney ran for the federal PC leadership in 1976...
...It became so bad that the party chairman, Dalton Camp, issued a leadership review and ultimately led a rebellion that toppled Diefenbaker...
...I was the leader and I was going to be prime minister if I could energize the entire party and then the country...
...But there is now a way for American readers to become acquainted (or reacquainted) with Mulroney: through his autobiography, Memoirs: 1939-1993...
...It was a lesson that he would carry with him throughout his political career...
...but when Mulroney attended St...
...In the early 1960s Mulroney’s political connections allowed him to work briefl y in Ottawa as private secretary to the agriculture minister, and he maintained those connections when he went to Laval University in Quebec and became a lawyer...
...50 In June 2004, the former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney spoke at Ronald Reagan’s funeral...
...This gave Mulroney the chance to travel the country and speak not only to PC supporters but potential voters...
...The two men had become good friends while in their respective offi ces...
...But Mulroney’s role in the PC party, and his views on a successful political formula for conservatism in Canada, were starting to change...
...It didn’t matter if a candidate or strategist or poll worker hated me or loved me...
...Mulroney’s greatest success was achieving the historic free trade deal (NAFTA) with the United States, which was later extended to Mexico...
...My overriding goal was to build a strong, united government that could win elections and face challenges at home and abroad in times of crisis...
Vol. 13 • February 2008 • No. 22
