Mulroney delivered a eulogy for Bush’s state funeral. He also eulogized Reagan in 2004. Mulroney,Reagan and Bush became friends when they shared the world stage as leaders of their countries during the last decade of the Cold War. Mulroney’s nine years in power overlapped with Bush’s four.It was Mulroney’s amiable relationship with his southern counterparts that helped develop the free-trade treaty, a hotly contested pact at the time. The trade deal led to a permanent realignment of the Canadian economy and huge increases in north-south trade. Canada is one of the most trade-dependent countries in the world. More than 75% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S.“He unleashed free enterprise, crushed inflation, restored fiscal sanity and concluded one of the greatest free trade agreements the world has ever seen,” Canadian Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said in a statement.“On the world stage, he stood firmly on the side of Western allies against communism and for freedom. He was among the first and most strident to fight against South Africa’s apartheid policy and champion the cause of Nelson Mandela.”However, Mulroney’s administration was saddled with scandals and his near decade reign as prime minister came crashing down in 1993 when voters delivered a devastating election defeat to his Progressive Conservative Party, leaving it with just two seats in the 295-member House of Commons. He left shortly before the election result.The defeat came amid widespread unhappiness over Canada’s then-depressed economy. Canadians blamed Mulroney for a three-year-old recession that left a record number of people out of work or bankrupt.Under his leadership, a much-criticized 7% sales tax was pushed through, as well as the 1988 U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement, after more than 100 years of tariff protection. The agreement later included Mexico in 1994, evolving into the North American Free Trade Agreement.“Prime Minister Mulroney’s instrumental role in the creation of the North American Free Trade Agreement laid the foundation for decades of economic cooperation and shared prosperity between the United States and Canada,” the U.S. ambassador to Canada, David Cohen, said in a statement.Mulroney, the Quebec-born, half-Irish “boy from Baie-Comeau” (a small-town in the French-speaking province), campaigned hard on the trade agreement following his first term.But many constituents opposed the treaty, concerned the agreement would jeopardize Canadian sovereignty. Critics blamed the rising unemployment during the late ’80s and early ’90s in Canada on factors such as businesses moving south to escape higher Canadian taxes and labor costs.Former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper noted Mulroney was vilified for the free trade deal during his leadership but said history will remember him as the leader who set Canada on a path to unprecedented economic growth and prosperity.Mulroney also irked Canadians by failing to unite the country’s then bickering provinces and resolve French-speaking Quebec’s desire for special status in the constitution, eventually leading to what would become a referendum on Quebec separation after he left office. The Quebec separatists lost a narrow vote.“He helped revive the conservative party. It didn’t exist in Quebec before him,” former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien said.
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