Brian Mulroney’s Speech: 25th Anniversary of the New Government

Email To Friend Email To Friend | Print Print |23/09/09

Il y a 25 ans aujourd’hui, j`étais assermenté comme 18ième Premier Ministre du Canada, à l`issue d`une élection historique.

Cette victoire avait été rendue possible grâce au travail acharné de tous ceux qui sont réunis ici ce soir, de même que de milliers d’autres à travers le pays— ces collègues et amis à qui je transmets en votre nom un message de gratitude et de loyauté indéfectible.

I convey to you all my enduring gratitude for your support, loyalty and friendship. You made it possible. You made it happen and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Only 22 people in the 142 year history of this magnificent country have held the title of Prime Minister. To have been elected and re-elected to the position with majority governments is a rare privilege and high honour. I am pleased to tell you what I suspect you already know: none of this would have been possible for me without the love, encouragement and support of Mila and the children all of whom, I am thrilled to point out, are with me here tonight.

Once you leave you tend not to miss much about active politics. But I can tell you that the part of political life I miss most of all is my caucus. I loved them all and deeply respected their sacrifice and admired their commitment. Their preoccupations become my priorities. So every Wednesday I witnessed a microcosm of Canada – replete with challenges, and achievements, tensions and dreams – as I watched men and women from vastly different regions, backgrounds and languages struggling to understand each other’s views while seeking to harmonize their differences into coherent national policy. Those moments exemplified for me the very essence of Parliamentary democracy and the splendor of a commitment to Canada.

We gathered to consider the great issues on our agenda, from the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement and Nafta to the GST, from Meech Lake to the Gulf war, from the creation of La Francophonie to the fight against apartheid in South Africa and the fight for the Canada-US acid rain agreement; from the abolition of the National Energy Program in the west to the creation of Nunavut in Canada’s north to the Atlantic Accord and Hiberia Agreement that launched prosperity in the east.

Nous jouissions il y a 25 ans d’un mandat clair, il nous appartenait, il était notre devoir de poser des gestes audacieux. C’est ce que nous avons fait.

Cet appui, ce réservoir de soutien et de loyauté, il est du devoir des leaders politiques de le mettre à contribution sagement, de s’en servir en invitant leurs collègues et leurs commettants à les accompagner dans les décisions difficiles, généralement impopulaires mais nécessaires à l’avancement et au mieux-être de la nation.

C’est cette philosophie qui nous animait et qui nous a permis de proposer, de défendre vigoureusement et finalement de faire adopter des mesures qui, à ce jour, avec le recul des années, ont fait la preuve qu’elles étaient la base d’une économie assainie et un outil essentiel à la bonne gouvernance de l’état.
Les gouvernements subséquents, après beaucoup de gymnastique et d’acrobatie oratoires ont finalement choisi, faisant preuve d’une sagesse réticente et tardive, de les laisser en place.

Nous étions, mon équipe et moi, plus jeunes, plus vigoureux, plus énergiques. N’allez pas croire, pour autant que nous étions dénués de sens politique et stratégique.

Nos adversaires nous ont affublés de tous les épithètes. Personne ne nous a jamais accusé toutefois d’être des rêveurs illuminés. Lorsque nous avons proposé le libre-échange et la TPS par exemple, ni moi, ni aucun membre du caucus n’a jamais pensé pour un seul instant que notre cote de faveur populaire allait monter en flèche!

Mais ces mesures étaient nécessaires. Nous avons affronté ensemble, solidairement, la tempête politique que nous avions déclenchée. Le prix politique a été lourd, les dividendes économiques beaucoup plus généreux que nous les avions anticipés; et le Canada d’aujourd’hui était le gagnant de cette décennie de grandes initiatives gouvernementales.

Comme Jean Charest l’a démontré encore il y a quelques mois, il faut toujours se souvenir que c’est en fin de soirée que l’on voit les meilleurs danseurs.

Tonight we celebrate not a victory of party, but an affirmation of democracy. 25 years ago, we created a new Conservative majority in Canada, restoring the alternation of government so essential to democratic renewal and change.

In the previous half century the Liberals had been in power for 42 years, the Conservatives for less than 7. It has developed that by winning 2 majority terms we gave the Conservative party more time in office than all other of our party’s leaders in 70 years combined.

So, this is truly an occasion for celebration. You did it. The women and men in this room did it. You carried me on your shoulders; but much more importantly, you carried us to victory. You did it throughout that remarkable campaign, when you proved day after day that our Conservative team was worthy of the confidence and trust of voters, and gave Canada what it needed most, not just a new government but a new direction for our country.

I promised “a brand new day and a brand new Canada.” And that’s exactly what we delivered. I promised to bring Canadians together in our time as Sir John A. Macdonald did in his own by re-creating his grand alliance of “English and French, East and West, new Canadians and old” to build a brand new Canada. And that’s exactly what we did.

And so, 25 years ago today, a Conservative majority government took office for the first time since John Diefenbaker. Four years later, in the free trade election, we became the first Conservative government to win a second consecutive majority in 100 years.

That night, a quarter century ago, a party basically of English Canada also became the party of French Canada. Because that night, we grew from 1 Quebec seat to 58.

A party of Western Canada also became the party of Eastern Canada.

A party of old Canadians also became the party of new Canadians.

A party of rural Canada also became the party of urban Canada.

A party of the margins finally became the party of the mainstream.

That’s why we won then – because we fought for the mainstream and throughout the campaign we never forgot the advice of a wise Canadian who once said: “Don’t be down hearted in the heat of battle. It’s where all good men would wish to be”.

A country without vision is one without destiny; a nation without dreams is one without hope.
We had a vision of Canada as a country united at home and admired abroad, for our values as much as our prosperity; a land of opportunity, a beacon of hope for the world.

We had a vision of Canada as a functional federation, where the provinces were Ottawa’s partners in Confederation. We sought to build a stronger Canada by respecting the constitutional division of powers designed by Sir John A. and the founding fathers and by securing Quebec’s signature on the Constitution.

Quand je regarde derrière, comme vous sans doute, je me demande quelquefois ce que nous aurions pu faire de mieux, ce que nous aurions pu améliorer davantage.

Bien des choses, sans doute. Mais je suis fier, vous l’êtes aussi, que nous l’avons courageusement essayé. Lorsqu’avec 25 ans de recul, on fait le bilan, il est évident que la colonne des réalisations, pour impressionnante qu’elle soit, comporte des lacunes. C’est la vie.

Mais réfléchissez avec moi. La mort d’une initiative – l’Accord du Lac Meech - qui nous tenait tant à coeur, au succès de laquelle nous nous sommes tellement investis laisse derrière une profonde nostalgie. Mais songez combien différent serait notre sentiment, si en nous retrouvant ce soir, la question était « Si seulement on avait essayé. »

Eh bien, nous avons essayé de toutes nos forces et ce fait historique sera à l’honneur de vous tous et du gouvernement conservateur jusqu’à dans la nuit des temps.

We also had a vision of Canada as a country engaged with the world, beginning with the United States, our closest neighbour, largest partner, and best friend. And what did that get us? The Canada-US Free Trade agreement, the NAFTA, the Arctic Agreement, and the Acid Rain Accord.

We joined the Organization of American States, which has put us on the map throughout Latin America and led the fight in the Commonwealth against the scourge of apartheid in South Africa.

We were known in the world by the things we stood for, the people we stood by, and the company we kept. When Germany was re-united after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Chancellor Kohl spoke to the Bundestag and thanked the three leaders he said were indispensable at that historic moment – the President of the United States, the President of the Soviet Union and the Prime Minister of Canada.
Nous avons également mis un terme à la querelle triangulaire Ottawa-Québec-Paris et conclu une entente qui a résulté dans la création du sommet de la francophonie, permettant ainsi au Québec de s’épanouir en jouant un rôle vital au niveau international, tout en assurant le rayonnement mondial de notre langue et culture françaises.

We were also respected throughout the world, for our leadership on the environment. We were the first industrialized country to sign both the atmospheric and bio-diversity accords. Our leadership in 1987 gave us the Montreal Protocol on ozone depletion. We were among the very first to recognize the threat of global warming and climate change. We created eight new national parks, including South Moresby in British Columbia, one of the great wilderness areas of the world. We brought in the Green Plan, ranked as no. 1 in the world by the United Nations, and Environmental Assessment Reviews and negotiated an Acid Rain Treaty with the U.S. that saved rivers, lakes, streams and forests for future generations of Canadians.
We also maintained the social safety net.

It turns out that we did more to enhance social programs than either our predecessors or our successors. Total social program spending in constant dollars increased from $48 billion in 1984 to $84 billion in 1993, and actually declined by 0.3 percent in the following ten years.

And we transformed the Canadian economy, with free trade, privatizations, deregulation, low inflation, investment and tax reform, creating millions of new jobs for Canadians and building a foundation for prosperity while strengthening the public finances of Canada.

I was flipping through my morning copy of the Globe and Mail … of February 28, 1890 and, wouldn’t you know, came across a report on the unveiling of Sir John A. MacDonald’s Prime Ministerial portrait.
The Globe reports “that the address to [Prime Minister MacDonald] by a Conservative colleague was as laudatory as the English language would permit” (I find nothing wrong with that custom).

The Globe then observed that Sir John A. “told his admiring followers that he was the father of responsible government in Canada, the joint father of Confederation and that the peace, progress and prosperity of the country for the past quarter of a century was wholly due to the Conservative party”. And some of the media said I was guilty of hyperbole!

But then the Globe – in a tradition that has fortunately survived to this day – introduced some measure of balance into its report of the occasion. The Globe continues: “Someone has said that the chief business of old men is to tell stories which nobody believes and this is pretty much the case with [Sir John A].” The Journalist concluded: “Anyone familiar with the history of Canada knows that Sir John was the opponent of every measure of reform… and that he has held power by a set of the most rascally corrupt acts that ever disgraced the statutes of a free country”. Gee, some things never change, eh!

Sir John A. had his flaws and made his own mistakes but he is universally recognized today as Canada’s greatest Prime Minister, by far.

We had our achievements as well and we also made our share of mistakes, no one more than me. As Sir John A. said: “there is no claim of infallibility in this office” and I was fallible enough on many days, all too human on some others. You are all familiar with some of my errors of judgment.

In the words of the old English ballad:
“I am wounded but I am not slain.
I’ll lay me down and bleed awhile,
Then I’ll rise and fight again.”

Time is the ally of leaders who placed the defence of principle ahead of the pursuit of popularity. And history has little time for the marginal roles played by the carpers and complainers and less for their opinions. History tends to focus on the builders, the deciders, the leaders, because they like you are the men and women whose contributions have shaped the destiny of their nations.

Theodore Roosevelt had courageous leaders in mind when he spoke many years ago at La Sorbonne and uttered a few well known lines that I have come to cherish because they reflect the universal reality of all those who serve in the trenches of politics:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better.

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood… who spends himself in a worthy cause, who, at the best, knows in the end the triumphs of high achievement and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Privileged nations like Canada are often extremely resistant to change. Deep and important structural changes are indispensable however to re-ignite a growing economy and ensure the flourishing of peace and liberty and they can only be brought about by a firm expression of political will. As a contemporary American observer noted some years ago: “In a nation ruled by polls and ratings, where even newspapers hire focus groups to see what kind of news readers want, we are losing sight of something we should have learned as teen-agers: Just because something is popular doesn’t mean it’s right.”

In fact “transforming leadership” – leadership that makes a significant difference in the life of a nation – recognizes that political capital is acquired to be spent in great causes for one’s country.
This is precisely such a time.

Prime Ministers are not chosen to seek popularity. They are chosen to provide leadership. There are times when voters must be told not what they want to hear but what they have to know. And what they have to know is a quotation from the book of proverbs inscribed on the Peace Tower in Ottawa: “Where there is no vision, the people perish”.

Leaders must have vision and they must find the courage to fight for the policies that will give that vision life. Leaders must govern not for easy headlines in 10 days but for a better Canada in 10 years – and they must be ready to endure the attacks that often accompany profound or controversial change, while they await the distant and compelling sounds of a verdict that only history and a more reflective nation can render in the fullness of time.
Look at what is happening today in the United States. President Obama is fighting for a form of universal health care and is encountering ferocious resistance, even though his own party controls the House, Senate and White House. He is now struggling on all fronts to provide a viable program for 47 million uninsured Americans, and the millions more who continue to lose their health insurance every year because they can no longer afford it, while attempting to cut health care expenditures that are twice that of every industrialized nation in the world, 18% of their entire GDP.
The attacks on President Obama are often bitter and mean spirited and his approval ratings are sinking like a stone. Still he fights on.
Almost 50 years ago a similar battle raged in Canada. But the vision, courage and determination of Tommy Douglas, John Diefenbaker, Emmett Hall and Lester B. Pearson produced Canada’s national medicare program which, with its imperfections, remains to this day a monument both to their leadership and to the social justice and genuine sense of fairness inherent in our Canadian citizenship.
And 50 years from today Americans will revere the name Obama because – like his Canadian predecessors - he chose the tough responsibilities of national political leadership over the meaningless nostrums of sterile partisanship.
Chers amis, merci du fond du coeur de votre appui, de votre loyauté, de votre générosité.
Thank you all for your kindness, loyalty and support to Mila, the family and me over so many years. We will never forget your friendship and what you have done for Canada.
From the bloodied sands of Afghanistan to the snows and waters of the high Artic – and everything in between – the Canada of 50 years from now will be defined by the leadership we are given today.
This is the party that founded Canada.
This is the party that has contributed mightily to her growth and prosperity for almost a century and a half.
This is the party with the capacity and courage required to continue a grand and glorious tradition of keeping Canada on that broad, sweeping vista towards greater prosperity, respect and success.
And this is the party that will ensure unfolding decades record always that you stood for Canada today in a manner that built her future so that our very youngest Canadians will celebrate and benefit from your uncommonly effective national leadership that will power our country to new and impressive levels of achievement and that history will always hold high.
May God bless you all and bless our beloved country.
Merci à vous tous et bonne fin de soirée.

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