Breaking Faith: The Mulroney Legacy of Deceit, Destruction and Disunity

Ashley Thomson is a full librarian at Laurentian University and co-editor or co-author of nine books, most recently Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005.

Brooke Jeffrey was Director of the federal Liberal Caucus Research
Bureau between 1984, when Brian Mulroney became prime minister, and
1990, a year before this book’s research effectively ends—if by
research one means relying on newspapers columnists, Maclean’s opinion
polls, rumor, and corridor gossip. This text can be seen as her earlier
work recycled into a book (although recycling normally involves taking
trash and turning it into something usable: this book takes something
that may have been useful to the Turner Liberals and turns it into
trash).

Brian Mulroney was not perfect, but it strains credibility to argue in
240 pages that the former prime minister’s government did only one
thing right. After dealing with how Mulroney governed and what he stood
for, Jeffrey concludes that “only in those areas where American
interests were minimal such as South Africa or Third World Aid did the
Canadian government attempt to take a leadership role consistent with
its middle power image.” By coincidence, this book also has only one
thing going for it: the print is large enough that those who read with
their lips will not need to ask for a magnifying glass to help them
along.

Unfortunately, this book is not only unbelievably biased, it is also
outdated, since Mulroney is no longer in office. It is fortunate,
therefore, that the publisher has chosen to print the text on cheap
paper that will not stand the test of time. Breaking Faith is a perfect
candidate for recycling.