Brian Mulroney
by Lon Allen at
Dystopiad.com
- December 2005 -
"A British politician is usually caught with his hand up a woman's skirt while a Canadian politician is usually caught with his hand in the till."
- Sun Media columnist Valerie Gibson
- Mulroney and Reagan -
2 peas in a pod?
Stephen Harper's bleatings about corruption in the Liberal Party are beginning to wear a little thin - the Conservatives can't claim any moral ground in that department (nor can the other parties) and, while I'm no cheerleader for the Liberals or NDP, I thought it would be useful to recap a few of the trials and tribulations (so to speak) of Brian Mulroney, leader of the last Conservative government in Canada.
During his 1984-1993 tenure as Canada's Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney lost, on average, a cabinet minister a year to allegations of corruption, fraud, influence-peddling - you name it.
Robert Coates was the first to go when he stepped down as Defence Minister in 1985 after it was revealed he was visiting strip clubs in West Germany on taxpayer money while there on official government business.
Next was Communications Minister Marcel Masse who left shortly after over an alleged violation of the Canada Elections Act. He was later exonerated (the Teflon Don syndrome, maybe?).
'Tunagate': This 1985 fiasco brought down Fisheries Minister John Fraser and robbed a New Brunswick town of its main employer. It seems Fraser, buckling under intense lobbying from the plant's owners, had ordered a million cans of StarKist tuna released for sale to the public after his own inspectors had said the tuna, packed at the StarKist plant in St. Andrews, N.B., was so badly spoiled that it wasn't even fit to be turned into catfood.
Fraser said he had sent samples of the tuna to two independent labs for testing, but those labs later said they hadn't finished their tests by the time Fraser decided to release the shipment. Initially, both Fraser and Mulroney said that Mulroney had known about the original decision to release the tuna but both later said the Prime Minister had not known until the affair became public.
Fraser eventually went on to a new job, becoming Speaker in the House of Commons, (go figure!), but the 400 StarKist workers in St. Andrews weren't so lucky. The company's market share tanked, the plant closed, and 400 hundred workers were out of a job.
In 1986, Minister of Regional Industrial Expansion Sinclair Stevens stepped down because of conflict-of-interest allegations related to a $2.6-million loan to a Stevens family company.
Transport Minister Andre Bissonnette was forced to resign in 1987 while the RCMP investigated his alleged involvement in land speculation.
Roch LaSalle, from Public Works, left Cabinet the same year after being charged with demanding and receiving bribe money from businesses looking for government favours. The charges were later dropped.
Supply and Services Minister Michel Coté left in 1988 over conflict-of-interest allegations involving a personal loan, and in 1989 Bernard Valcourt left after pleading guilty to an impaired driving offence.
Jean Charest (current Premier of Quebec) was forced to leave his posts as Minister for Fitness and Amateur Sport, and Minister for Youth when it came to light he tried to talk to a judge about an ongoing case.
Housing Minister Alan Redway resigned after being charged over joking about having a gun while boarding a flight at the Ottawa airport.
Although Quebec MP Michel Gravel wasn't a cabinet minister, it was equally embarassing to Mulroney's government when, in 1986, he was charged with 50 counts of fraud and influencing peddling. Gravel pleaded guilty to 15 charges, paid a $50,000 fine, and spent 4 months in jail.
Conservatives to this day consider Mulroney's greatest legacies to be the GST (introduced as a solution to Mulroney's financial mismanagement), and NAFTA. (In all fairness, the Liberals under Jean Chretien campaigned on a promise to get rid of the GST, but once elected they reneged, seems the cash cow was just too good to give up.
As for NAFTA, I wonder how the folks in Canada's softwood lumber industry (and others) stack up on how well that's going?
We also shouldn't forget that Mulroney supported the 1991 Gulf War, sending both troops and hardware to the Gulf. This marked the first time since the Korean War that Canadian troops participated in combat missions - abandoning Canada's traditional role as 'global peacekeeper'.
Former Ontario premier David Pearson, who stood by Mulroney during negotiations for the Meech Lake Accord, is quoted as saying he would "never trust" the former prime minister. "He is a pathological liar," Pearson says. "In fairness, I don't believe he knows he's lying ... you couldn't take anything he said at face value."
Mulroney left office (rather than walk the plank) with an approval rating of 10% - an all-time low in Canada - and the PC party was obliterated in the 1993 election - reduced to just two seats in Parliament.
In 1998, Mulroney was accorded Canada's highest civilian honour when he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada (par for the course in Canadian politics!) and currently sits on the board of directors for multiple corporations, including Barrick Gold and Quebecor Inc.
On September 12, 2005, longtime friend, biographer and confidant, Peter C. Newman released his book - The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister - and it caused quite a stir. The book was based in large part on off-the-cuff remarks by Mulroney which Newman had taped with Mulroney's knowledge. Newman released the tapes after Mulroney did not honour a prior agreement with Newman - leading to a falling out between the two.
Mulroney responded at a press dinner on October 22 with a very short speech. The former Prime Minister appeared on tape and after formally acknowledging the various dignitaries and audience groups said: "Peter Newman: Go fuck yourself. Thank you. Good night."
There you have it: Brian Mulroney - one class act, eh? Companion of the Order of Canada?
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