I’m trying to think of something charitable to say about Mulroney, but the closest I can get is that he, together with Mike Harris, quickly dispelled the silly notion that I could ever vote conservative at a young and impressionable point in my life. So, thanks…I guess?
May he enjoy his eternal rest and I offer condolences to his relatives. He played an important part in Canada’s history but I’ll be frank, this news made my afternoon!
He was the Thatcher/Reagan of Canada, kick-starting the sell-off of Canadian national treasures to private interests.
I’m especially bitter about Via Rail having half of routes cut in 1989. Via and the intercity rail network have not even been close to recovering over 35 years since then.
There was even a Vancouver Island service! A Nova Scotia service! A Canada that could have been is what I’m mourning more for.
All my respects to the Mulroney family for the loss of their patriarch … but the guy grabbed the wheels of our country and led us down a dark path we’ve been digging out of ever since. I’ll give my respects for being a prominent figure in our country but I can’t forgive the terrible conditions and situations he created and left for average and the poorest Canadians since he left office. The wealthiest will celebrate him at his death bed … but the poorest will wonder why we even acknowledge this guy … and that shows you what kind of leader he was.
On the other hand, he did more than any other Prime Minister for the environment with the Montreal Protocols on the ozone layer and he was at the forefront of the fight against the Apartheid.
Both were international efforts that took decades in the making and basically brought industries and their government lackeys to get to the table in a global forum in order to do something about it. Both efforts came about through the efforts of international advocates and representatives basically forcing so many leaders to deal with obvious problems and then take years to institute and agree to change.
In all that time, instead of taking the time to quickly deal with these international concerns, they spent years arguing while at the same time holding a fire sale of the Canadian economy to corporate interest and privatizing everything that was good about our country. A privatization gamble that we lost years ago and have since been trying to recover from ever since … and we’re still fighting against it today. That is Mulroney’s great legacy.
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