Welcome to the Broadcast by Don Newman

Author:Don Newman [Newman, Don]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781443416849
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Published: 2013-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

25

Liberals in the ‘80s

THE LIBERALS WERE watching the Progressive Conservative leadership race almost as closely as the Tories. And as Brian Mulroney wrestled the Tory crown from Joe Clark in June 1983, it underlined what most people following politics had already assumed: the Liberals would also need a new leader before the country next went to the polls, most likely in 1984.

Pierre Trudeau had cancelled his retirement in 1979 to return triumphant and reverse his defeat to Joe Clark in May of that year with a victory and a government with a small majority in February of 1980. The unspoken assumption throughout that campaign was that, if re-elected, Trudeau would serve no more than a couple of years before retiring for good, leaving his successor with a majority government and at least two more years to govern and establish a reputation as prime minister. And after the successful patriation of the Constitution in April of 1982, which was viewed as Trudeau’s legacy, people began looking for signs that that was about to happen. But they looked in vain.

By the fall of 1983, Mulroney had entered the House through a by-election in a Nova Scotia riding and was leading the Opposition in Question Period and beyond. For someone who had never done it before, he was surprisingly good as a questioner, although Trudeau and the other old pros in the Liberal cabinet like Marc Lalonde, Allan MacEachen and Lloyd Axworthy could verbally smack him around if his questions got too far under their skin. But what went on in the House didn’t seem to matter much. The Liberals were lagging badly in the public opinion polls, and an economy slow to recover from the recession of 1981–82 wasn’t helping.

In the late fall of 1983 and early winter of 1984, Trudeau began a “world peace tour” of foreign capitals, including Washington and Moscow. The tour didn’t seem to affect world peace, nor did it do much for Trudeau’s poll standing, even though he managed to be awarded the Einstein Peace Prize in Chicago. It was a prize unheard of in Canada, and it was unclear what Trudeau had specifically achieved to deserve it.

In February 1984, a newspaper reported that Trudeau’s office was keeping a “secret” file on Mulroney. It turned out the file was a folder of newspaper clippings and not much else, but Mulroney feigned indignation. As I sat down to watch Question Period that day, I expected there would be quite a ruckus in the Commons. There was a lot more than I had expected, because in Question Period the day the story broke, every Tory question was about the file. Usually, the prime minister responds only to questions from the other party leaders, but on this day, Trudeau got to his feet to take every question about the Mulroney file. And with every response, he hit the ball out of the park. It was a bravura performance, unseen in the House of Commons in anyone’s memory before or since. Liberal MPs’ cheers for him grew louder and louder.

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