It was February 29, 1984 when then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced his pending resignation before the next federal election, a day after his much-vaunted "walk in the snow". The writing was on the wall for the Liberal government of the day and popularity for the Progressive Conservatives under Brian Mulroney was very high. Forty years to the day later, Mulroney passed away leaving a Canada that is much different today than it was before he became its leader. We are used to Canada as it is now - a generation has passed since Mulroney left office - but watching his visitation and funeral these past few days got me thinking about how much this country has changed from when I was a kid.
Today's pundits have listed exhaustively the policies and accomplishments of Canada's last PC government from Jobs, Jobs, Jobs and the shift to more private enterprise to Free Trade to Meech Lake to opposing South African apartheid to the Charlottetown Accord and so on. But generally speaking, what Brian Mulroney and his government accomplished most was lifting Canada out of its timid insularity. He was neither timid nor insular and because of that he, perhaps unwittingly, declared war on Canada's prevalent, and oddly cherished, National Inferiority Complex.
One of the first things he did after being elected Prime Minister was to go to New York City to announce that "Canada is open for business". It wasn't long before he scrapped both the highly nationalistic Foreign Investment Review Agency and the National Energy Policy. Over time, the economy under the Mulroney government became more north-south than east-west. Relations with the Reagan and Bush administrations were great, far beyond just cordial - and this made many Canadians uncomfortable, especially those in Canada's media establishment. The vitriol the media laid on him, his government and even his family was constant, unprecedented and often uncalled for. That's what a leader gets for taking the unwilling into new and unfamiliar territory. But that is the job of a leader.
Mulroney not only drastically altered the economy but he forced us to change how we view ourselves, a thankless and difficult task. While his policy changes have, by and large, remained with us long after he left office, he also set us on a path to maturity and in the long run, we are all the better for it. For example, prior to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada was the only country in the world to have not won a single gold medal at the Olympic Games as a host nation (Montreal 1976 and Calgary 1988). But we were a different people by Vancouver 2010 and thanks to the momentum generated by the Canadian Olympic Committee's Own the Podium initiative, Canada broke the record for winning the most gold medals at any Olympic Winter Games. I believe this wouldn't have happened if we were still locked in our National Inferiority Complex.
Under Brian Mulroney, we shed our identity as a nation of solitudes. His became the natural governing party with a patchwork of Western, Central, Quebecois and Maritime representation. Despite all the scorn heaped on him during his years in power, Mulroney believed that history would judge him kindly and I think he was right. He tried to look past the negative criticism of those heady days (some of it deserved) to his ultimate place in the country's history and before his passing, I believe he was, for the most part, content. He lived long enough to enjoy the status of a respected elder statesman and to reflect wistfully on where he had failed as such. As in any career, there were things to be proud of and things to regret but whether people like him or not, we still have much to thank him for.
