I have been watching the Oliphant inquiry off and on whenever I get a chance. I do not know what to think of Brian Mulroney. He could have gone down in history as a good Prime Minister had he not been involved in shoddy dealings. He was no replacement of Trudeau, as Mulroney became very cozy with Ronald Reagan of the US which was not a good move.
In hindsight I think the Meech Lake Accord was a good deal for Canada and Quebec but he screwed it up by bragging about the "roll the dice" business which annoyed some Premiers and also many other politicians involved which, in the end, killed the Meech Lake Accord.
However Mulroney stood firm on human rights issues as he firmly supported sanctions against apartheid South Africa. He was also good on the environment and earned the title of green Prime Minister. He definitely was much more progressive than Stephen Harper.
His achievements went down the sewer after revelations of his shoddy dealings with Karlheinz Schreiber. What was he thinking? Mulroney had many Clintonian moments during the inquiry. He was asked why he did not tell the truth during the Airbus inquiry about having business relations with Schreiber. Mulroney declared during that inquiry that he had nothing to do with Schreiber. His answer was typical Clintonian, "it was the context" and he had no dealings with Schreiber in the context of Airbus. Yeah right Brian, too bad for you. At least Clinton had a lot of fun. Then Mulroney was asked why did it not bother him that he was receiving these bags of cash and that it could be inappropriate and illegal. He retorted something like this, "No sir they were not bags they were legal size envelopes." Yeah sure Brian and that really makes it legal and all is well.
It does not look good for Brian Mulroney. He mentored Stephen Harper and Steve already completely disowns him. What a cruel world! One feels sad for Mulroney and his family. He is 70 years old and should be enjoying his life as an elder statesman but all the shoddy dealing are coming back to haunt him. Life, thy name is tragedy.
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