Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ as the 18th prime minister of Canada - nee; March 20, 1939 – February 29, 2024)
Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ (/mʊlˈruːni/ muul-ROO-nee; March 20, 1939 – February 29, 2024) was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993.
Born in the eastern Quebec city of Baie-Comeau, he studied political science and law. He then moved to Montreal and gained prominence as a labour lawyer. After placing third in the 1976 Progressive Conservative leadership election, he was appointed president of the Iron Ore Company of Canada in 1977.
He held that post until 1983, when he successfully became leader of the Progressive Conservatives. He then led the party to a landslide victory in the 1984 federal election, winning the second-largest percentage of seats in Canadian history (at 74.8 per cent) and receiving over 50 per cent of the popular vote. He later won a second majority government in 1988.
Mulroney's tenure as prime minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement, the goods and services tax (GST) that was created to replace the manufacturers' sales tax, and the privatization of 23 of 61 Crown corporations including Air Canada and Petro-Canada. Mulroney sought Quebec's endorsement of the constitutional amendments by first introducing the Meech Lake Accord and then the Charlottetown Accord. Both proposed recognizing Quebec as a distinct society, extending provincial powers, and extensively changing the constitution. Both of the Accords failed to be ratified and the Meech Lake Accord's demise revived Quebec separatism, leading to the rise of the Bloc Québécois. In foreign policy, Mulroney strengthened Canada's ties with the United States and opposed the apartheid regime in South Africa, leading an effort within the Commonwealth to sanction the country. Mulroney's tenure was marked by the Air India Flight 182 bombing, the largest mass killing in Canadian history, though his response to the attack came under criticism. Mulroney made environmental protection a priority by securing a treaty with the United States on acid rain, making Canada the first industrialized country to ratify the Convention on Biological Diversity, adding significant national parks (Bruce Peninsula and South Moresby), and passing the Environmental Assessment Act and the Environmental Protection Act.
After politics (1993–2024)
After leaving office, Mulroney served as an international business consultant and was a partner with the law firm Norton Rose. He, up until his death in 2024, sat on the board of directors of multiple corporations, including The Blackstone Group, Barrick Gold, Quebecor Inc., Archer Daniels Midland, Cendant Corp. (New York), AOL Latin America, Inc. (New York), Cognicase Inc. (Montreal) and Acreage Holdings, one of the largest vertically integrated cannabis companies in the United States.[153] He was a senior counsellor to Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, a global private equity fund in Dallas, chairman of Forbes Global (New York), and was a paid consultant and lobbyist for Karl-Heinz Schreiber beginning in 1993. He was also chairman of various international advisory boards and councils for many international companies, including Power Corp. (Montreal), Bombardier (Montreal), the China International Trust and Investment Corp. (Beijing), J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. (New York), Violy, Byorum and Partners (New York), VS&A Communications Partners (New York), Independent Newspapers (Dublin) and General Enterprise Management Services Limited (British Virgin Islands).[154]
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