Memoirs

Memoirs\ 1939-1993 \ \ By Brian Mulroney \ Douglas Gibson Books\ Copyright © 2007 Brian Mulroney\ All right reserved.\ ISBN: 9780771065361 \ \ \ It was rainy and cold in Baie-Comeau when Mila and I left the victory celebration at about one o’clock in the morning and returned to our hotel suite in what I had grown up calling “the Mill Manager’s House.”\ \ Earlier, at eight o’clock, the CBC decision desk had announced that “Brian Mulroney has led the Progressive Conservative Party to a majority government and will become Canada’s eighteenth prime minister.” I stood before the TV set with Mila, surrounded by cheering friends, as the beauty of the moment washed over me. I turned to my old pal Sam Wakim and joked, “I always said the CBC was an intelligent network.”\ \ As promising returns had come in from Newfoundland, I had asked Fred Doucet, my long-time friend and chief of staff, to call into Madawaska for a poll — any poll — result. French-speaking nothern New Brunswick had been Liberal territory forever, but a promising young candidate, Bernard Valcourt, was running for us there, and Mila and I had campaigned tirelessly with him, trying for a breakthrough. I knew that if we were ahead in a rural poll there, we were in for a big night. When I saw the grin on Doucet’s face as he concluded the call, I realized that we were lookingat a landslide. Valcourt was rolling to victory, and so were we.\ \ My own constituency was vast and remote. Owing to reporting difficulties, for some hours the returns from Manicouagan were limited to one large Indian reserve that had overwhelmingly voted Liberal, conveying the impression to the watching nation that, while we were winning everywhere else, I was in serious danger of losing my own seat. This began to be reported almost as fact. Watching at Stornoway, our Ottawa home, ten-year-old Caroline was deeply dismayed. “I’m outta here!” she announced. She gathered her brothers silently and went upstairs to bed, awakening the next morning to the refreshing news that her father had indeed made it back to the House of Commons.\ \ Toward the end of the evening, when the dimensions of the PC sweep looked historic, I got a call from Prime Minister John Turner, conceding the election. I’m sure it was a very painful moment for him — once the golden boy of Canadian politics, now defeated after barely two months in office. He was extremely gracious, congratulating me on a strong campaign, promising a smooth transition and wishing me well. I congratulated him on winning Vancouver Quadra, and we both chuckled over the tremendous effort his sister Brenda had put into the fight, just as my sister Olive and brother Gary had won Manicouagan for me. We agreed to an Ottawa meeting to finalize the transition.\ \ Immediately after John’s call, I changed from the old pair of slacks and green V-neck sweater I had worn all evening to a blue business suit, so that Mila and I could speak to our supporters (by now in varying degrees of lubrication) gathered in the local arena. The atmosphere was electric when we arrived, as the band belted out our campaign song and thousands of Baie-Comeauites — including hundreds of childhood friends who had encouraged me all my life — chanted “Brian! Brian! Brian!” just as countless supporters had done across Canada. When we ascended the stage, the cheering was almost intoxicating, so joyful was the mood, with people surging forward in waves. I could sense the great pride this hard-working crowd took in watching one of their own achieve the highest office in Canada. It was like a réveillon, St. Patrick’s Day, and Pierrette Arsenault’s wedding all rolled into one. I could hardly believe what I was seeing, and what I knew was really happening.\ \ For a few days I had worked on a victory speech. Although a little too long, it was well received by the enthusiastic crowd. After the speech we returned to our suite in the Annex, the former manager’s house, where Mila and I changed into sweaters and slacks before joining friends and the travelling staff for a party at Le Manoir Comeau, a hotel I had worked at as a waiter and bellboy when I was young and was now entering as prime minister-designate.\ \ When the partying was over, back at the Annex I accepted congratulatory calls (everybody loves a winner), spoke to my mother, Mila’s parents, Conservative premiers from across Canada, our key organizers, and Robert Bourassa. Finally, at about five in the morning, we headed up to bed. Mila, exhausted from an almost nonstop eighteen-month campaign (beginning in March 1983 for the PC leadership), was soon sound asleep. I went to an adjacent room to change. Not wanting to disturb Mila but too charged to sleep, I lay down on the room’s small bed and turned on the radio, which was carrying regular reports on our election success. Eventually I dozed off, only to be awakened, at three minutes to seven, by the mill whistle calling the men to work. That sound had shaped my childhood, because it governed my father’s life, telling him when to get up and go to work, when to leave and go home.\ \ As the whistle pierced the grey of a drab September morning, and the rain beat down on the copper roof, I thought of my dad. I thought of his struggles and of the great courage that had allowed him, an electrician who held down two jobs most of his life, to support a wife and six children in an isolated community like Baie-Comeau. As I got up to look out the window at our home at 79 Champlain Street — the only house my dad ever owned — I wondered what he’d think and what he’d say today, although I already knew the answer. He’d look at me, smile proudly, hug my mom, sit down, and beam — just he way he always did when I was little and pleased him with my school marks, minor jobs, or athletic achievements. My father was my hero, and I knew that this moment would never have occurred without him. I was overwhelmed by emotion as I reflected on his death, nineteen years earlier, in that small mill home on Champlain Street not five hundred yards from my hotel room.\ \ The sound of the whistle seemed to hang in the air. \ \ Continues... \ \ \ \ Excerpted from Memoirs by Brian Mulroney Copyright © 2007 by Brian Mulroney. Excerpted by permission.\ All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.\ Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site. \ \

Prologue: September 4, 1984     IXThe Early Years, 1939-1960     1Champlain Street     3Growing Up in Baie-Comeau     12StFX     28The Making of a Young Tory     39A Life in Quebec, 1960-1975     55Universite Laval     57Ottawa Interlude     72Legal Hurdles     87A Death in Baie-Comeau     97Labour Lawyer     104Politics and Strikes     112Trudeau's October     127Mila     136Tricksters, Crooks, and Scum: The Cliche Commission     143The Clark Years, 1976-1983     155"Politics Ain't Beanbag": The 1976 Leadership Campaign     157Life at the Iron Ore Company of Canada     177No Discipline, No Power     194Winnipeg and Schefferville     211The 1983 Leadership Campaign     220Showdown in Ottawa     242Picking Up the Reins     252Leading and Winning, 1983-1984     261Leader of the Opposition     263Exit Trudeau, Enter Turner     283A Summer Election     295Transition to Power     310The First Mandate, 1984-1988     3211984The New Prime Minister     3231985The Shamrock Summit and Beyond     346Budget Troubles and Steps Toward Free Trade     375A Bad Month     389Fighting Apartheid     3981986Vive la Francophonie - et l'Egalite     413Washington, Tokyo, and Beijing     429Toward a Cabinet Shuffle     446The Apartheid Wars Continue     461Tough Decisions Abroad and at Home     4731987Strong Words with President Reagan     488Clearing the Decks     503The Road to Meech Lake     508Inside the Talks at Meech Lake     519The Trudeau Factor     529Showdown at the Langevin Block     540Foreign Affairs and the Death Penalty     546The Free Trade Roller Coaster     562The End of an Interesting Year     5781988An Auspicious Start     585Personal Diplomacy     599Preparing for the Vote     610Campaign '88     622The Second Mandate, 1989-1993     6451989The Start of the Last Good Year     647Tiananmen Square and Beyond     664Behind the Scenes with Reagan, Thatcher, and Others     685After the Fall of the Berlin Wall     6991990Nation of Discontent     712The Bouchard Bombshell     734Distractions Along the Way     756The Shadows of Ghosts     767Oka, Iraq, and Thatcher's Fall     795The Home Front     8101991Two Wars: The GST and the Gulf     821The Battle for Canada's Soul     836Ireland, Europe, Bob Rae, and Sir John A.     853A Coup in Moscow     8711992A Bleak Start to the Year     888Plain Talk with George, Dick, and Boris     903Joe Clark's Instincts     914The Guns of August     930Charlottetown     9441993Bill Clinton and Others     962Resignation     980Inside the Meech Lake Debates (Government Conference Centre, June 4-8, 1990)     1016Arriving at the Charlottetown Accord (Notes of the Meeting at Harrington Lake August 4, 1992)     1046Notes     1055Select Bibliography     1078Acknowledgements     1084Permissions     1090Index      1091