Brian Mulroney

Martin Brian Mulroney (March 20, 1939 – February 29, 2024) was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993. He led the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and served as a member of Parliament (MP) from 1983 to 1993.

Born in the eastern Quebec city of Baie-Comeau, Mulroney studied political science and law. He then moved to Montreal and gained prominence as a labour lawyer. He ran for leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in 1976, placing third. He was appointed as president of the Iron Ore Company of Canada in 1977. In 1983, Mulroney defeated former prime minister Joe Clark to become leader of the Progressive Conservatives. Mulroney led the party to a landslide victory in the 1984 federal election, winning the second-largest percentage of seats in Canadian history—at 74.8%—and receiving over 50% of the popular vote. He led the party to a second majority government in the 1988 federal election.

Mulroney's tenure as prime minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement later expanded through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the goods and services tax (GST) that was created to replace the manufacturers' sales tax, and the privatization of 23 of Canada's 61 Crown corporations, including Air Canada and Petro-Canada. Mulroney attempted to secure Quebec's support of the Constitution Act, 1982 by introducing the Meech Lake Accord and later the Charlottetown Accord. Both proposed recognizing Quebec as a distinct society, extending provincial powers, and extensively changing the Canadian constitution; however, the accords failed to be ratified, and the Meech Lake Accord's demise revived Quebec separatism, leading to the formation of the Bloc Québécois. Mulroney faced criticism for his response to the Air India Flight 182 bombing, the largest mass killing in Canadian history. In 1993, his government signed the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, leading to the creation of the territory of Nunavut. In foreign policy, Mulroney's government strengthened Canada's ties with the United States, ordered military intervention in the Gulf War, and played a leading role within the Commonwealth to sanction the apartheid regime in South Africa. On the environment, he signed a treaty with the United States on acid rain, made Canada the first developed country to ratify the Convention on Biological Diversity, added eight national parks, and passed the original Environmental Protection Act and Environmental Assessment Act.

The unpopularity of the GST and the controversy surrounding its passage in the Senate, combined with the early 1990s recession, the prevalence of Canada's chronic budget deficit, the collapse of the Charlottetown Accord, and the rise of the Bloc and the Reform Party (the latter a result of growing Western alienation), caused a stark decline in Mulroney's popularity. He resigned in June 1993 and was succeeded by his cabinet minister Kim Campbell. In the election later that year, the Progressive Conservatives were reduced from a parliamentary caucus of 156 to two, with its support being eroded by the Bloc and Reform parties. In his retirement, Mulroney served as an international business consultant and sat on the board of directors of multiple corporations. He places above average in rankings of Canadian prime ministers, but his legacy remains contentious. He was criticized for his role in the resurgence of Quebec nationalism and accused of corruption in the Airbus affair, a scandal which came to light several years after he left office.

Early life (1939–1955)

Mulroney was born on March 20, 1939, in Baie-Comeau, Quebec, a remote and isolated town of the Côte-Nord region, in the eastern part of the province. He was the son of Irish Canadian Catholic parents, Mary Irene (née O'Shea) and Benedict Martin Mulroney, who was a paper mill electrician. As there was no English-language Catholic high school in Baie-Comeau, Mulroney completed his high school education at a Roman Catholic boarding school in Chatham, New Brunswick, operated by St. Thomas University. In 2001, St. Thomas University named its newest academic building in his honour. Benedict Mulroney worked overtime and ran a repair business to earn extra money for his children's education, and he encouraged his oldest son to attend university.

Mulroney would frequently tell stories about newspaper publisher Robert R. McCormick, whose company had founded Baie-Comeau. Mulroney would sing Irish songs for McCormick, and the publisher would slip him $50. Mulroney grew up speaking English and French fluently.

Family

On May 26, 1973, Mulroney married Mila Pivnički, the daughter of a Serbian-Canadian doctor, Dimitrije Pivnički [sr], from Novi Bečej. Many PC campaign buttons featured both Mulroney's face and hers, and Ontario premier Bill Davis commented to Brian, "Mila will get you more votes for you than you will for yourself."

The Mulroneys have four children:

Caroline Mulroney Lapham (b. 1974) - Since 2018 the Member of Provincial Parliament for York—Simcoe and a provincial cabinet minister in the ministry of Doug Ford. Like Mulroney, she contested the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party leadership in 2018 without having been an electoral candidate, placed third in the first ballot behind Ford and runner-up Christine Elliott. Mulroney said that she was the most like him "in her mindset" and that she would have been the most likely to follow his footsteps into politics.

Benedict (Ben) Mulroney (b. 1976) - a radio and television personality, currently the host of The Ben Mulroney Show mornings on 640 Toronto, and from 2016 to 2021 the host of the CTV morning show Your Morning. He is married to stylist Jessica, and their three children served as page boys and bridesmaids during the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on May 19, 2018.

Mark Mulroney (b. 1977) - a banking executive, it was announced in August 2025 that he would join CIBC as a global vice chair. His name was mentioned by the press as a potential contender leading up to the 2017 and 2020 federal Conservative leadership contests.

Nicholas Mulroney (b. 1985) - co-founder of Bond Bakery Brands, an investment platform for independent commercial bakeries.

Education (1955–1964)

Mulroney entered St. Francis Xavier University in the fall of 1955 as a 16-year-old first-year student. His political life began when he was recruited to the campus Progressive Conservative group by Lowell Murray and others early in his first year. Murray, who was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 1979, became Mulroney's close friend, mentor, and adviser. Mulroney made other important, lasting friendships with Gerald Doucet, Fred Doucet, Sam Wakim, and Patrick MacAdam. Mulroney enthusiastically embraced political organization and assisted the local PC candidate in his successful 1956 Nova Scotia provincial election campaign; the PCs, led provincially by Robert Stanfield, won a surprise victory.

Mulroney became a youth delegate and attended the 1956 leadership convention in Ottawa. While initially undecided, Mulroney was captivated by John Diefenbaker's powerful oratory and easy approachability. Mulroney joined the Youth for Diefenbaker committee, which was led by Ted Rogers, a future scion of Canadian business. Mulroney struck an early friendship with Diefenbaker (who won the leadership) and received telephone calls from him.

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Mulroney won several public speaking contests at St. Francis Xavier University, was a star member of the school's debating team, and never lost an inter-university debate. He was also very active in campus politics, serving with distinction in several model parliaments, and was campus prime minister in a Maritimes-wide Model Parliament in 1958.

Mulroney assisted with the 1958 national election campaign at the local level in Nova Scotia. This campaign led to the largest majority in the history of the Canadian House of Commons. After graduating from St. Francis Xavier with a degree in political science in 1959, Mulroney at first pursued a law degree from Dalhousie Law School in Halifax. It was around this time that Mulroney also cultivated friendships with the Tory premier of Nova Scotia, Robert Stanfield, and his chief adviser Dalton Camp. In his role as an advance man, Mulroney assisted with Stanfield's successful 1960 re-election campaign. Mulroney neglected his studies, fell seriously ill during the winter term, was hospitalized, and, despite getting extensions for several courses because of his illness, left his program at Dalhousie after the first year. He then applied to Université Laval in Quebec City and continued his legal studies there later in 1960.

In Quebec City, Mulroney befriended future Quebec Premier Daniel Johnson Sr. and frequented the provincial legislature, making connections with politicians, aides, and journalists. At Laval, Mulroney built a network of friends, including Lucien Bouchard, Bernard Roy, Michel Cogger, Michael Meighen, and Jean Bazin, that would play a prominent role in Canadian politics for years to come.

Mulroney secured a temporary appointment in Ottawa during the summer of 1962 as the executive assistant to Alvin Hamilton, minister of agriculture. Then, a federal election was called. Hamilton took Mulroney with him on the campaign trail, where the young organizer gained valuable experience.

Labour lawyer (1964–1976)

After graduating from Laval in 1964, Mulroney moved to Montreal to join the law firm Howard, Cate, Ogilvy et al. The firm at the time was the largest law firm in the Commonwealth of Nations. Despite twice failing his bar exams, the firm kept him due to his charming personality. Mulroney finally passed the exam and was admitted to the Quebec bar in 1965, after which he began practising as a labour lawyer. He worked on Laurent Picard's Commission of Inquiry on the St. Lawrence Ports. He was noted for ending several strikes along the Montreal waterfront, where he met fellow lawyer W. David Angus of Stikeman Elliott, who would later become a valuable fundraiser for his campaigns. In addition, he met fellow then Stikeman Elliott lawyer Stanley Hartt, who later played a vital role assisting him during his political career as Mulroney's Chief of Staff.

In 1966, Dalton Camp, who by then was president of the Progressive Conservative Party, ran for re-election in what many believed to be a referendum on Diefenbaker's leadership. Diefenbaker had reached his 70th birthday in 1965. Mulroney joined with most of his generation in supporting Camp and opposing Diefenbaker, but due to his past friendship with Diefenbaker, he attempted to stay out of the spotlight. With Camp's narrow victory, Diefenbaker called for a 1967 leadership convention in Toronto. Mulroney joined with Joe Clark and others in supporting former Justice minister E. Davie Fulton. Once Fulton dropped off the ballot, Mulroney helped in swinging most of his organization over to Robert Stanfield, who won. Mulroney, then 28, would soon become a chief adviser to the new leader in Quebec.

Mulroney's professional reputation was further enhanced when he ended a strike that was considered impossible to resolve at the Montreal newspaper La Presse. In doing so, Mulroney and the paper's owner, Canadian business mogul Paul Desmarais, became friends. After his initial difficulties, Mulroney's reputation in his firm steadily increased, and he was made a partner in 1971.

Mulroney's big break came during the Cliche Commission in 1974, which was set up by Quebec premier Robert Bourassa to investigate the situation at the James Bay Project, Canada's largest hydroelectric project. Violence and dirty tactics had broken out as part of a union accreditation struggle. To ensure the commission was non-partisan, Bourassa, the Liberal premier, placed Robert Cliche, a former leader of the provincial New Democratic Party in charge. Cliche asked Mulroney, a Progressive Conservative and a former student of his, to join the commission. Mulroney asked Lucien Bouchard to join as counsel. The committee's proceedings, which showed Mafia infiltration of the unions, made Mulroney well known in Quebec, as the hearings were extensively covered in the media. The Cliche Commission's report was largely adopted by the Bourassa government. A notable incident included the revelation that the controversy may have involved the office of the premier of Quebec when it emerged that Paul Desrochers, Bourassa's special executive assistant, had met with the union boss André Desjardins, known as the "King of Construction," to ask for his help with winning a by-election in exchange guaranteeing that only companies employing workers from his union would work on the James Bay project. Although Bouchard favoured calling in Robert Bourassa as a witness, Mulroney refused, deeming it a violation of 'executive privilege.' Mulroney and Bourassa would later cultivate a friendship that would turn out to be extremely beneficial when Mulroney ran for re-election in 1988.

1976 Progressive Conservative leadership election

The Stanfield-led Progressive Conservatives lost the 1974 election to the Pierre Trudeau-led Liberals, leading to Stanfield's resignation as leader. Mulroney, despite never having run for elected office, entered the contest to replace him. Mulroney and provincial rival Claude Wagner were both seen as potentially able to improve the party's standing in Quebec, which had supported the federal Liberals for decades. Mulroney had played the lead role in recruiting Wagner to the PC party a few years earlier, and the two wound up as rivals for Quebec delegates, most of whom were snared by Wagner, who even blocked Mulroney from becoming a voting delegate at the convention. In the leadership race, Mulroney spent an estimated $500,000, far more than the other candidates, and earned himself the nickname 'Cadillac candidate.' At the 1976 leadership convention, Mulroney placed second on the first ballot behind Wagner. His expensive campaign, slick image, lack of parliamentary experience, and vague policy positions did not endear him to many delegates, and he was unable to build upon his base support, being overtaken by eventual winner Joe Clark on the second ballot. Mulroney was the only one of the eleven leadership candidates who did not provide full financial disclosure on his campaign expenses, and his campaign finished deeply in debt.

Business leadership (1976–1983)

Mulroney took the job of executive vice president of the Iron Ore Company of Canada, a joint subsidiary of three major U.S. steel corporations. Mulroney earned a salary well into the six-figure range. In 1977, he was appointed company president. Drawing upon his labour law experience, he instituted improved labour relations, and, with commodity prices on the rise, company profits soared during the next several years. In 1983, Mulroney successfully negotiated the closing of the Schefferville mine, winning a generous settlement for the affected workers. In the wake of his loss in the 1976 leadership race, Mulroney battled alcohol abuse and depression for several years; he credits his loyal wife Mila with helping him recover. In 1979, he permanently became a teetotaller. During his IOC term, he made liberal use of the company's executive jet, frequently flying business associates and friends on fishing trips. Mulroney also maintained and expanded his extensive political networking among business leaders and conservatives across the country. As his business reputation grew, he was invited onto several corporate boards.

Opposition leader (1983–1984)

Joe Clark led the Progressive Conservative party to a minority government in the 1979 federal election, ending 16 years of continuous Liberal rule. Clark's government fell after a successful no-confidence motion over the budget in December 1979. The PCs subsequently lost the federal election held two months later to Trudeau and the Liberals. Many Tories were also annoyed with Clark over his slowness in dispensing patronage appointments after he became prime minister in June 1979. By late 1982, Joe Clark's leadership of the Progressive Conservatives was being questioned in many party circles and among many Tory members of Parliament, despite his solid national lead over prime minister Pierre Trudeau in opinion polls.

Mulroney, while publicly endorsing Clark at a press conference in 1982, organized behind the scenes to defeat him at the party's leadership review. Clark's key Quebec organizer, Rodrigue Pageau, was actually a double agent working for Mulroney, undermining Clark's support. When Clark received an endorsement by only 66.9 percent of delegates at the party convention in January 1983 in Winnipeg, he resigned and ran to regain his post at the 1983 leadership convention. Despite still not being a member of Parliament, Mulroney ran against him, campaigning more shrewdly than he had done seven years before. Mulroney had been criticized in 1976 for lacking policy depth and substance, a weakness he addressed by making several major speeches across the country in the early 1980s, which were collected into a book, Where I Stand, published in 1983.

Mulroney also avoided most of the flash of his earlier campaign, for which he had been criticized. Mulroney was elected party leader on June 11, 1983, beating Clark on the fourth ballot, attracting broad support from the many factions of the party and especially from representatives of his native Quebec. Pundits noted that a poll of delegates on the final ballot showed that Mulroney had won a bare majority of Clark's home province of Alberta and that Clark had won a bare majority in Mulroney's home province of Quebec. Mulroney's strong showing amongst Ontario delegates (65 percent to 35 percent) seemed to account for most of his margin of victory. A New York Times article from 1984 argued that Mulroney was elected from "the right-wing elements" within the party. Tasha Kheiriddin, writing in La Presse, argued that "Brian Mulroney's injuries to Joe Clark in 1983 took more than 15 years to heal, as various factions continued to compete for leadership roles in the field and youth wings."

Two months later, Mulroney entered Parliament as the MP for Central Nova in Nova Scotia, winning a by-election in what was then considered a safe Tory seat after Elmer MacKay stood aside in his favour. The Progressive Conservatives only had one seat in Mulroney's home province of Quebec.

Throughout his political career, Mulroney's fluency in English and French, with Quebec roots in both cultures, gave him an advantage that eventually proved decisive.

By the start of 1984, as Mulroney began learning the realities of parliamentary life in the House of Commons, the Tories took a substantial lead in opinion polling. It was almost taken for granted that Trudeau would be heavily defeated by Mulroney in the general election due no later than 1985. Trudeau announced his retirement in February and was succeeded as Liberal leader and prime minister by his former finance minister, John Turner, in June. The Liberals then surged in the polls to take a lead after trailing by more than 20 percentage points. Only four days after being sworn in as prime minister, Turner called a general election for September. But the Liberal election campaign machinery was in disarray, leading to a weak campaign.

In the early days of the campaign, Mulroney made several gaffes regarding patronage, insulting ambassador Bryce Mackasey with the phrase "there's no whore like an old whore". Most of the campaign is best remembered for his attacks on a raft of Liberal patronage appointments. In his final days in office, Trudeau had controversially appointed a flurry of senators, judges, and executives on various governmental and crown corporation boards, widely seen as a way to offer 'plum jobs' to loyal members of the Liberal party. Upon assuming office, Turner had been under pressure to advise governor general Jeanne Sauvé to cancel the appointments—which convention would then have required Sauvé to do. Turner did not, instead appointing several more Liberals to prominent political offices per a signed legal agreement with Trudeau.

Turner had planned to attack Mulroney over the patronage machine that the latter had set up in anticipation of victory. In a televised leaders' debate, Turner launched what appeared to be the start of a blistering attack on Mulroney by comparing his patronage machine to that of the old Union Nationale in Quebec. Mulroney successfully turned the tables by pointing to the recent raft of Liberal patronage appointments. He demanded that Turner apologize to the country for making "these horrible appointments." Turner replied that, "I had no option" except to let the appointments stand. Mulroney famously responded:

You had an option, sir. You could have said, 'I am not going to do it. This is wrong for Canada, and I am not going to ask Canadians to pay the price.' You had an option, sir—to say 'no'—and you chose to say 'yes' to the old attitudes and the old stories of the Liberal Party. That, sir, if I may say respectfully, is not good enough for Canadians.

Turner froze and wilted under this withering riposte from Mulroney. He could repeat only, "I had no option." A visibly angry Mulroney called this "an avowal of failure" and "a confession of non-leadership." The exchange led most papers the next day, with most of them paraphrasing Mulroney's counterattack as "You had an option, sir—you could have said 'no.'" Many observers believe that at this point, Mulroney assured himself of becoming prime minister.

On September 4, Mulroney and the Tories won the second largest majority government in terms of percentage of seats in Canadian history, winning 74.8 percent of seats in the House of Commons; the 1958 election had seen the Tories win 78.5 percent of seats. Mulroney's government took 211 seats, three more than their previous record in 1958 and the highest number ever won by any party in Canadian history. The Liberals won only 40 seats, which, at the time, was their worst performance ever and the worst defeat for a governing party at the federal level in Canadian history. The Progressive Conservatives won just over half of the popular vote (compared to 53.4 percent in 1958) and led in every province, emerging as a national party for the first time since 1958. Especially important was the Tories' performance in Mulroney's home province, Quebec. The Tories had only won the most seats in that province once since 1896 – the 1958 Tory landslide. Largely out of anger at Trudeau and Mulroney's promise of a new deal for Quebec, the province swung over dramatically to support him. The Tories had only won one seat out of 75 in 1980 but took 58 seats in 1984. Mulroney yielded Central Nova back to MacKay and instead ran and won in the eastern Quebec riding of Manicouagan, which included Baie-Comeau.

In 1984, the Canadian Press named Mulroney "Newsmaker of the Year" for the second straight year, making him only the second prime minister to have received the honour both before becoming prime minister and when prime minister (the other being Lester Pearson).