Mulroney: The Making of the Prime Minister

Agar Adamson is the author of Letters of Agar Adamson, 1914–19 and former chair of the Department of Political Science at Acadia University in Nova Scotia.

In his acknowledgments, author L. Ian MacDonald writes: “This is in no sense an authorised biography of Brian Mulroney, though it is very much a first biography. Nor is it meant to serve as a critical biography, since there is no record of achievement or disappointment in office.” MacDonald has, perhaps, in these two sentences summarized his own work. This is a biography of Martin Brian Mulroney, although it is not a critical biography, nor is it necessarily an authoritative biography. It should be pointed out that the Prime Minister, on numerous occasions, did submit to interviews, and he answered frequent questions from the author; thus, it is a biography based upon primary rather than secondary sources.

MacDonald has fallen into the trap that faces all biographers — that is, he has become too close to his subject, and his objectivity, from time to time, should be questioned. Also, the book, particularly in the early chapters, could be tightened up as he tends to make certain points more than once.

On the other hand, MacDonald has presented a very readable and very useful biography on Mulroney that goes a long way to explain to Canadians the background of their eighteenth Prime Minister. Certainly, there remain unanswered questions: MacDonald makes reference to Mulroney’s Catholicism, yet we are left to speculate as to the strength of his religious convictions. Similarly, the reader is left to speculate between the lines with respect to Mulroney’s decision to stop drinking. Was there a problem, or did Mulroney purely and simply decide that, for business and political reasons, he would be a far better person if he stuck to “soda water and tomato juice”?

The reader does get a view of Mulroney the individual, and particularly Mulroney the man who is faithful to his friends. Indeed, this faithfulness could become his political Achilles’ heel. It is true, as MacDonald points out, that these friends have been very supportive and very faithful, but will they continue to be open with Mulroney now that he is Prime Minister?

MacDonald does pay particular attention to Mulroney the labour negotiator, and Mulroney’s involvement in the Cliche Commission. He does not, however, make the obvious comparison between Mulroney and Mackenzie King. Although Mulroney might not like such a comparison, it is quite apparent that he has many of the conciliatory attributes that proved to be so successful to Mackenzie King during his lengthy period as Prime Minister.

The chapters on Mulroney’s leadership campaigns are most useful and give the reader an insight into the workings of the convention campaign process. In this respect, the book should be taken as a companion to Contenders, by Martin, Gregg, and Perlin. Unfortunately, MacDonald “rushed” the work following the general election; consequently, although the concluding two chapters are useful with respect to Mulroney and the 1984 campaign, they are not as comprehensive as one might have expected.

The real merits of the book, and indeed its merits outweigh its detrimental points, are that it gives us a description of who Mulroney is, and from whence he came; furthermore, it shows us the strength of his wife and the fact that indeed theirs is not just a political partnership. She is indeed his greatest asset. In addition, the work illustrates the fact that Mulroney is a decent, caring individual who may be gregarious and a bit of an operator, but who is a professional politician. He is also a man who is sensitive as to his roots, which means that he is not a right-wing Reaganite.

MacDonald points out, perhaps, Mulroney’s greatest (at least so far) service to Canadian politics, and that is his knowledge of Quebec and his desire to restore the two-party system in Canada. Indeed, he is probably the only individual who could have done this. Certainly, Clark could not have, nor could have Crosbie, and while Stanfield tried, he was unsuccessful. In many respects, despite their different backgrounds including wealth and university, Brian Mulroney is the true heir to Pierre Elliott Trudeau, a fact that becomes abundantly clear in MacDonald’s book. Both Trudeau and Mulroney understand Quebec and the problems of the integration of the Quebecois into Canadian society; thus it is in this sense that Mulroney is Trudeau’s heir. This fact is illustrated by the author in his discussion on the Conservative stand with respect to the recent Manitoba language issue. Certainly, Mulroney is not the arrogant loner that Trudeau was, nor is he Trudeau’s equal as an intellectual. Both men, at least temporarily, were able to unite the country, Trudeau in 1968, and Mulroney in 1984. If MacDonald’s analysis is correct, Mulroney should have greater success in maintaining this unity than did Trudeau.

One hopes that MacDonald’s book will be successful so that he will be able to publish a soft-cover edition, which would permit him to tighten up his script and to put more emphasis on the events of July and August 1984. To label the book “The Making of the Prime Minister” is perhaps a misnomer, given the fact that the campaign is not given the coverage it deserves. However, MacDonald is to be commended for his efforts in writing what is, indeed, a very useful, very entertaining, and very readable book, even if his objectivity may occasionally be suspect.