I was too young to really know or understand what the deal was with Brian Mulroney. I was just always told that he created the GST and was the bad guy for that.
I know he was close friends with the Bushes and Reagans. I generally heard bad things about him growing up.
A few years ago, I heard his eulogy for George Bush Sr. and if anything, he was a richly eloquent and beautiful speaker.
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RIP to Brian Mulroney. Politics was different back then and while I wouldn’t have agreed with a lot of his positions he struck me as more of a gentleman than what we have today.
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RIP to Brian Mulroney. Politics was different back then and while I wouldn’t have agreed with a lot of his positions he struck me as more of a gentleman than what we have today.
This is exactly what I said in my bosses office a few moments ago. You usually had good reason to dislike some of our Prime Ministers, but even some of the big ones people gripe about, Trudeau Sr., Chretien, Martin, Mulroney, were gentlemen.
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RIP to Brian Mulroney. Politics was different back then and while I wouldn’t have agreed with a lot of his positions he struck me as more of a gentleman than what we have today.
When I was growing up EVERYONE hated Mulroney. GST was the big one, and his desire to tax the Canadian people was even referenced in the greatest Christmas Carol ever written:
When they got to the Causeway, Santa's mood was quite low,
He was down to his very last ho, ho, ho, ho,
They wanted his money: two bits and a Loonie,
They said they were collecting for Brian Mulroney
The only person I ever knew growing up that like Mulroney was my grandfather. He said that the GST and free trade saved the country.
Now, as an adult, I'm inclined to agree with him. In fairness, I think part of it was cool to hate Mulroney just like it was/is cool to hate Nickelback.
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When I was growing up EVERYONE hated Mulroney. GST was the big one, and his desire to tax the Canadian people was even referenced in the greatest Christmas Carol ever written:
When they got to the Causeway, Santa's mood was quite low,
He was down to his very last ho, ho, ho, ho,
They wanted his money: two bits and a Loonie,
They said they were collecting for Brian Mulroney
The only person I ever knew growing up that like Mulroney was my grandfather. He said that the GST and free trade saved the country.
Now, as an adult, I'm inclined to agree with him. In fairness, I think part of it was cool to hate Mulroney just like it was/is cool to hate Nickelback.
Also the focal point of a schoolyard Looney Tunes jingle:
We're tiny
we're tuney
we can't afford a loonie
since Brian Mul-rooney
invented GST!
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When I was growing up EVERYONE hated Mulroney. GST was the big one, and his desire to tax the Canadian people was even referenced in the greatest Christmas Carol ever written:
When they got to the Causeway, Santa's mood was quite low,
He was down to his very last ho, ho, ho, ho,
They wanted his money: two bits and a Loonie,
They said they were collecting for Brian Mulroney
The only person I ever knew growing up that like Mulroney was my grandfather. He said that the GST and free trade saved the country.
Now, as an adult, I'm inclined to agree with him. In fairness, I think part of it was cool to hate Mulroney just like it was/is cool to hate Nickelback.
I think he took a lot of flack in Ontario with free trade. And the last PM to have the bravery to bring in a new tax(kinda). The following election probably tells us why that was the case.
Eff Trudeau is out there now. In the 80s it was a bumper sticker with a middle finger on it saying “Tax this, Brian.”
Great speaker, level headed. I saw him at the Forum the first time I went there. He had season tickets for years. Someone was yelling at him and was removed quickly.
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Yeah, but you know what the other difference is? People hated Mulroney because they didn’t like his policies instead of attacking his character. Like I have no doubt that politically Ed Broadbent and John Turner hated Brian Mulroney, but I also have no doubt that they got along in real life and just recognized that they all wanted different ways to make the country better.
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This is exactly what I said in my bosses office a few moments ago. You usually had good reason to dislike some of our Prime Ministers, but even some of the big ones people gripe about, Trudeau Sr., Chretien, Martin, Mulroney, were gentlemen.
*unless you were indigenous
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I think he took a lot of flack in Ontario with free trade. And the last PM to have the bravery to bring in a new tax(kinda). The following election probably tells us why that was the case.
I think it was moreso the failures of Meech Lake Charlottetown and the failure to bring Quebec which created the Bloc and alienated the West which created Reform.
He was the last PM brave enough to take on constitutional reform. Meech Lake should have passed.
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Last edited by GirlySports; 02-29-2024 at 05:35 PM.
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He royally ####ed Winnipeg by awarding the F-18 contract to Quebec. That's the policy I hated. The GST always made sense to me as it replaced the manufacturer's tax which was a disaster.
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Disagreed with a lot of what he stood for domestically, but admired his principled stand regarding South African Apartheid. This was in stark contrast to Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher's stances. Nelson Mandela never forgot that, and Canada enjoys a certain honour to this day.
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Yeah, but you know what the other difference is? People hated Mulroney because they didn’t like his policies instead of attacking his character. Like I have no doubt that politically Ed Broadbent and John Turner hated Brian Mulroney, but I also have no doubt that they got along in real life and just recognized that they all wanted different ways to make the country better.
Didn't this guy get busted for accepting envelopes of cash from a German "businessman?" He was a crook, plain and simple.
A GST is probably one of the more fair taxes there are. The issue isn't really the GST, but that it was on top of other taxes and not a replacement as it was promoted.
A lot of people hated the idea of NAFTA at the time and saw it as giving away some sovereignty. There was a lot of talk about selling out Canadian industry and resources to the Americans, rather than investing in Canada.
There was also the failed Meech Lake Accord which revived Quebec separatism.
Privatizing Crown Corporations (part of the reason the GST was created).
I am not really informed enough on the positive and negative trade offs to have an opinion, but those were a few of the main controversies. In general though, Mulroney was hugely popular at the beginning of his office and would probably be better than most politicians in this country today. He'd probably be considered a centrist by today's standards.
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Last edited by FlamesAddiction; 02-29-2024 at 06:11 PM.
It was deemed inappropriate but happened after he was pm and was an mp. His government was riddled with scandals, very true. It’s part of his complicated legacy, he implemented a hated tax and had the courage to do it. He tried hard on the constitution, got close and nobody has tried again. Free trade. Apartheid.
But yes, screwed the west in the f18 affair, didn’t do the military any favours either and decimated his party opening the door for reform.
I can’t just thrown him in the crook plain and simple pile though. The world is full of gray.
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