Mulroney, Martin Brian

Mulroney, Martin Brian (b. 20 Mar. 1939). Prime Minister of Canada 1984–93 Born at Baie-Comeau (Quebec), he joined the Progressive Conservative Party while attending St Francis Xavier University, and became a party worker before resuming his studies at Laval University. After graduating in law he joined a large Montreal law firm, where he specialized in labour relations while continuing his activities for the Conservatives. Although not a parliamentary representative, he became the most powerful man in the Quebec Conservative Party as a result of his fund-raising activities and his pivotal position in the party machine. He ran unsuccessfully for the federal Conservative Party leadership in 1976, and narrowly beat Clark for the leadership on 11 June 1983, when he was also elected to the House of Commons. A man of considerable charm and charisma, he built on his experience as a party organizer to run a successful election campaign against the Liberal Party under Turner, in which his party gained an unprecedented election victory in 1984.

His efforts to achieve a final settlement of the Canadian constitutional problem, and to address the concerns of the French-speaking Canadians concentrated in his home province, Quebec, resulted in the Meech Lake Accord. He was a firm supporter of NATO, and allowed the deployment of US nuclear missiles on Canadian soil. In the 1988 elections, he lost his two-thirds majority, but still won a comfortable victory, thus becoming the first Conservative Prime Minister to be confirmed in office this century. The victory enabled him to realize a second central policy goal, the liberalization of trade with the USA, which culminated in NAFTA. While his popularity benefited from the economic boom of the 1980s, he became increasingly unpopular as unemployment rose and economic growth came to a halt in the early 1990s. He faced increasing pressure to resign, amidst predictions that the Conservatives would lose the forthcoming elections, and in 1993 he finally made way for Kim Campbell.