RIP Brian Mulroney

[UPChip]

Canadian prime minister from 1984-93.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/brian-mulroney-passes-away-1.7130287

 

[DanOregon]

Helped "discover" Michael Buble. :eek:

 

[Sea Bass]

Had a chin that rivalled Jay Leno’s.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

Also a neighbor of a stinky former president in Palm Beach, according to the CBC obituary

 

[UPChip]

I'm kind of a Canadophile, which is why I started the thread. Seems like a lot of Canadians viewed him as a phony who sold them out to the United States (or Quebec sovereignists), but the guy had a voice. Makes you want to listen to him read the phone book.

Then there was this "speech," devoted to an author who used secret recordings of him to write a tell-all book:

 

[Huggy]

After Pierre Trudeau probably the most polarizing PM of my lifetime. Probably the last PM who was on the world stage, hanging with the likes of Reagan and Thatcher.

 

[Tighthead]

After Pierre Trudeau probably the most polarizing PM of my lifetime. Probably the last PM who was on the world stage, hanging with the likes of Reagan and Thatcher.

Eulogized 2 US Presidents, a leader in anti-apartheid and as I learned yesterday, Canada was first to recognize an independent Ukraine in 1991. Pretty impressive. I have a bias as I’m pretty much a red Tory (politically homeless now). Although P.E.T. was largely before my time, he wasn’t my cup of tea.

 

[Sea Bass]

I'm kind of a Canadophile, which is why I started the thread. Seems like a lot of Canadians viewed him as a phony who sold them out to the United States (or Quebec sovereignists), but the guy had a voice. Makes you want to listen to him read the phone book.

Then there was this "speech," devoted to an author who used secret recordings of him to write a tell-all book:

I hadn’t seen that before, that’s funny. Interesting that it was a Liberal setting up that bit.

 

[UPChip]

I hadn’t seen that before, that’s funny. Interesting that it was a Liberal setting up that bit.

Mulroney's career as PM got murdered by two issues, both mostly of his making.

One, he replaced a tax to manufacturers on the back end with essentially a value-added tax to consumers on the front end. The justification was to improve the competitiveness of Canadian exports, but in practice, it read like a sales tax.

The other is what's called the Meech Lake Accord. I have a friend at church who is Canadian and today I chatted with him because I wanted, as an exercise, to summarize it for an American in a paragraph.

After Canada "patriated," i.e. removed the role of the British Parliament, from its constitution, Mulroney floated a series of constitutional amendments known as the Meech Lake Accord to get Quebec to sign on (even though it was already in effect). Those included the recognition of Quebec as a "distinct society" within Canada and veto power for provinces or groups of provinces. Kind of like the ERA, Meech Lake required everyone to sign on by a certain date, and so was officially torpedoed by one member of the Manitoba legislature, who denied unanimous consent to fast-track debate before the deadline passed on account of the fact that Native groups were not consulted on its contents (though it also hadn't passed in Newfoundland yet). The failure of the deal basically kickstarted the second wave of Quebec separatism and fed the ascent of the Reform Party, another right-wing party full of Alberta types. Mulroney "retired" about six months before the 1993 election, basically handing a live grenade to Kim Campbell, the country's first woman prime minister (and only to date), leading to a decade of Jean Chretien (one of my best "celebrity" impressions), with the Tories getting busted down to TWO seats (Campbell even lost).

It is ironic that, more or less, the country was governed for the better part of 20 years by two Quebecers, one of whom spoke perfect English and the other, whose dialect was, how shall I say, a bit challenged.

 

[BartonK]

I'm sure all the Robin Sparkles fans on the board will remember him for that time he went to the mall:

 

[Huggy]

Mulroney's career as PM got murdered by two issues, both mostly of his making.

One, he replaced a tax to manufacturers on the back end with essentially a value-added tax to consumers on the front end. The justification was to improve the competitiveness of Canadian exports, but in practice, it read like a sales tax.

The other is what's called the Meech Lake Accord. I have a friend at church who is Canadian and today I chatted with him because I wanted, as an exercise, to summarize it for an American in a paragraph.

After Canada "patriated," i.e. removed the role of the British Parliament, from its constitution, Mulroney floated a series of constitutional amendments known as the Meech Lake Accord to get Quebec to sign on (even though it was already in effect). Those included the recognition of Quebec as a "distinct society" within Canada and veto power for provinces or groups of provinces. Kind of like the ERA, Meech Lake required everyone to sign on by a certain date, and so was officially torpedoed by one member of the Manitoba legislature, who denied unanimous consent to fast-track debate before the deadline passed on account of the fact that Native groups were not consulted on its contents (though it also hadn't passed in Newfoundland yet). The failure of the deal basically kickstarted the second wave of Quebec separatism and fed the ascent of the Reform Party, another right-wing party full of Alberta types. Mulroney "retired" about six months before the 1993 election, basically handing a live grenade to Kim Campbell, the country's first woman prime minister (and only to date), leading to a decade of Jean Chretien (one of my best "celebrity" impressions), with the Tories getting busted down to TWO seats (Campbell even lost).

It is ironic that, more or less, the country was governed for the better part of 20 years by two Quebecers, one of whom spoke perfect English and the other, whose dialect was, how shall I say, a bit challenged.

Chrétien couldn’t speak either of the official languages up here!

 

[Sea Bass]

Mulroney's career as PM got murdered by two issues, both mostly of his making.

One, he replaced a tax to manufacturers on the back end with essentially a value-added tax to consumers on the front end. The justification was to improve the competitiveness of Canadian exports, but in practice, it read like a sales tax.

The other is what's called the Meech Lake Accord. I have a friend at church who is Canadian and today I chatted with him because I wanted, as an exercise, to summarize it for an American in a paragraph.

After Canada "patriated," i.e. removed the role of the British Parliament, from its constitution, Mulroney floated a series of constitutional amendments known as the Meech Lake Accord to get Quebec to sign on (even though it was already in effect). Those included the recognition of Quebec as a "distinct society" within Canada and veto power for provinces or groups of provinces. Kind of like the ERA, Meech Lake required everyone to sign on by a certain date, and so was officially torpedoed by one member of the Manitoba legislature, who denied unanimous consent to fast-track debate before the deadline passed on account of the fact that Native groups were not consulted on its contents (though it also hadn't passed in Newfoundland yet). The failure of the deal basically kickstarted the second wave of Quebec separatism and fed the ascent of the Reform Party, another right-wing party full of Alberta types. Mulroney "retired" about six months before the 1993 election, basically handing a live grenade to Kim Campbell, the country's first woman prime minister (and only to date), leading to a decade of Jean Chretien (one of my best "celebrity" impressions), with the Tories getting busted down to TWO seats (Campbell even lost).

It is ironic that, more or less, the country was governed for the better part of 20 years by two Quebecers, one of whom spoke perfect English and the other, whose dialect was, how shall I say, a bit challenged.

I am Canadian so I am familiar with most of this but thanks for filling in some blanks.

I was in university in 1993 when the Torys got decimated in that election. There was a student pub just off campus that, the morning after that election, changed their sign to read “All Tory MPs eat free!”

 

[UPChip]

I am Canadian so I am familiar with most of this but thanks for filling in some blanks.

I was in university in 1993 when the Torys got decimated in that election. There was a student pub just off campus that, the morning after that election, changed their sign to read “All Tory MPs eat free!”

Chrétien couldn’t speak either of the official languages up here!

No problem. Honestly, I was doing it as much as anything to educate myself than anyone here.

This is an audio joke, but it's one of my favorites, so read it aloud with a thick accent and it might work:

Jean Chretien gets off the plane in Nunavut in July wearing a goofy-looking hat made of fox fur.

The mayor of Iqaluit says to him, "You know, you probably didn't need the hat, it's not below zero all 12 months of the year here."

Chretien throws up his hands and says, "I say to my wife Alene, I'm going to Nunavut today!" and she say, "Where the fox hat?" so I wear the fox hat."