Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

Strombo v. Mulroney

by Aaron Wherry on Monday, February 23, 2009 8:30pm - 28 Comments

On Newsworld just now, but originally aired last week.

The full, uncut interview is online here.

Tags: Brian Mulroney, George Stroumboulopoulos

More by Aaron Wherry

Saganash out

Romeo Saganash will announce tomorrow morning that he is dropping out of the NDP…
The Commons: The wild west

Who needs warning shots when you’ve got torture?
Which part of the Bible covers jet fighter procurement?

Julian Fantino, the associate minister of defence, responding this afternoon to questions from the…

Dot

The guy was a leader and had vision. He also had many faults. Not unlike, in many ways, Bill Clinton.

http://macleans.ca kc

Yes i think i’ve come full circle on Brian. His faults are many and glaring, not the least his continuing addiction to blaming everyone else for is own mistakes. However, his positive atributes are/were also considerable. I guess if it’s ok to see Mcdonald as a great PM despite some similar faults, then we oughta credit Brian appropriately.

Sisyphus

Well, maybe you do. I don’t.

http://macleans.ca kc

I’m cetainly not in love with him, i’d say my list of dislikes is easily twice as long as my likes. So what’s yr particular beef?

Critical Reasoning

I’m sure Mulroney is correct to say that history will be kind to him. Free trade, NAFTA, GST… all these things have been good for Canada, despite being very unpopular at the time. Meech Lake and Charlottetown failed, but they were noble failures.

Also, look at the acid rain treaty. It actually worked! The most successful Canadian environmental policy in the last 20 years.

Ti-Guy

Please don’t gush. It’s unseemly.

Critical Reasoning

If you say so.

Ti-Guy

Good God, the embarrassing displays of Mulroney worship.

I don’t know where to look.

http://macleans.ca kc

There was absolutely nothing noble about Meech and Charlottetown!
After seeing this sweeping endorsement i may yet regret my own nobility in trying to see him in historical perspective. My real aim was to wrestle with the idea that if we as Canadians insist to hold our PMs, in particular, to an ideal of perfection that no-one can attain, we can hardly be surprised if we have few national political heroes.

Critical Reasoning

Don’t be such a wet noodle. Take a stand and stick to it. Maybe you disagree with Meech and Charlottetown, but you have to admit that NAFTA/GST/acid rain were very successful policies.

http://macleans.ca kc

No wet noodle about it. I was around for Meech and the fierce debate over free trade and the gst. You were probably in high school. If i’m right this is all theory for you, not for me. You have no idea how much of this country despised Mulroney at the time. For me anyway it’s abig effort to see him in a historical light. It costs you nothing!

Critical Reasoning

kc, you make a good point – I was not really tuned in to all the Mulroney hatred during my youth and I didn’t experience him in the same way you did. I take back the “wet noodle” thing.
http://macleans.ca kc

CR
Why thankyou sir. I am still more than alittle bothered, after more than 30yrs of living in this country why we hold on to our grudges like they were blue chip stock? [ mmm...maybe not so gd an analogy ]
Of course it would be exactly the same if the subjet were PET. Odd when you see how we revere Big Mac – despite his flaws, which were by no means insignificant. Lord help us when SH’s time comes round.

TobyornotToby

Oh come on! Mulroney was Patient Zero in the scourge of negative politics that has inflicted our country!

Don’t forget the crisis at Kahnestake that his Justice Department turned into a military stand-off, the tainted tuna coverup, the scientific research credit that funded shell companies with no products, the about faces on FTA (it was the McDonald Commission and the Liberals that touted it originally) and the sale of Air Canada, the GST (a good idea badly implemented, just allowed manufacturers off the hook and added 7% to the cost of goods), and general corruption and payoffs.

You call Meech (and Charlottetown) a noble attempt, but those accords, along with his stupendous ego, just ended up exacerbating regional tensions.

Along with the destruction of the Progressive Conservative party, Mulroney contributed directly to the rise of selfish Alberta separatism, and the creation of the Bloc Quebecois, both of which persist in parliament. By trying to sell the country to premiers (let’s face it that’s who the big winners were in both accords) who already had less checks and balances on them than a majority prime minister, he contributed directly to this electoral Balkanization in which a sizable percentage of the elecorate have voted against something or someone every election since.

The electorate aren’t children who prefer the lenient parent. Sometimes politcians are unpopular because they are arrogant, manipulative and destructive. Or do you think George Bush will be treated kindly too?

Neil from Calgary

Mulroney gave us the GST and the Free Trade Agreement with the U.S.. Two things the Liberals campaigned against under Chretien, then embraced once in power.
Mulroney repaired our diplomatic and economic relationship with the U.S. after the “Canada-first” policies of the Trudeau government.
Mulroney practiced “national reconciliation” during his years in power, a grand departure from the the Trudeau Liberals.
Mulroney gave us the acid-rain treaty. He has been named the greenest PM in Canadian history.
He steadfastly opposed the apartheid regime in South Africa.
He had his faults, like all PMs before and since. But he remains one of our greatest visionaries and the most under-appreciated PM.

Brian Mulroney: What a Leader.

LeenieJ (imho)

know your history. the Liberals were first to try establishing Free Trade with the US long ago.

Mike T.

He brought the country to the precipice with Meech Lake and became the godfather of modern separatism by giving birth to the block. He shifted the tax burden mercilessly to the middle and lower class. He gave America a sweetheart free trade deal with no protection to the little guy, which Harper cemented by caving on softwood lumber.

And he accepted millions in money which looked a lot like a bribe, lied about accepting the money, and demanded and got millions of taxpayer money for people having the nerve to suggest he took the money.

Aside from that I guess he did his best.

http://macleans.ca kc

Well i guess i’m pretty much in a minority as far as liberals go, in being at all wiling to see some positives in the man. I must admit i’d forgotten just how polarised folks are/were over this guy.

Mike T.

Well, after killing the second most venerable party in the history of Canadian politics, he did look good in comparison to the guys who came after.
Mike T.

Well, after mortally wounding the second most venerable party in Canadian politics, he looked good compared to those who filled the void he left.

http://macleans.ca kc

Times are different, but he was a hell of a lot more politician than Harper, that’s for sure. I wonder how many disaffected Progressives there are still out there who’ll never forgive the man. I know i wouldn’t if i’d have been one.

http://www.canadianrosebud.blogspot.com burlivespipe

So where are all those rankled CON types, who spend their holidays seething about the Sponsorship scandal, when it comes to demanding that Mulroney pays back his ill-gotten gains?

LeenieJ (imho)

i wonder the same; cost us millions more didn’t it?

Wayne

Speaking as a 100% Trudeau, Mulroney, Chretiten and now Harper supporter – I hope history is kind to Mulroney as well he did some great things for Canada absolutley no doubt about it and hopefully history will be kind to him … although … he loses marks for sheer stupidity .. I don’t know about everyone else but one look at Schreiber and 1 minute listening to him and a giant Gong went off in my head – danger, danger Will Robinson so doing any business with that guy is like taking a giant stupid pill and whoever does deserves to lose not only some of the whatever karmic political cookies they may have earned but a little self respect as well.

LeenieJ (imho)

yes Wayne, danger, he’s about to reveal the wide-spread corruption that occurred to get rid of Joe Clark and probably still is in circulation today; or do you think greed ever gives willingly?
LeenieJ (imho)

didn’t you understand what Schreiber was saying about how they distributed the money he gave them? their wives got money to go shopping; friends too maybe?

the fault is not in Schreiber but the ones who took the money; that’s when it became a bribe.

LeenieJ (imho)

correction; that’s when the receivers of the bribe became corrupt; their emails about the “birds” are very telling. these ppl built up what they have by incorrect means. integrity means something to ppl like me.