Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau praises Mulroney's role in creating a “modern, dynamic and prosperous country.”
Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who led his country to sign a broad free trade agreement with the United States, has died. He was 84 years old.
Mulroney, who governed Canada from 1984 to 1993, died peacefully surrounded by his family, his daughter, Caroline Mulroney, said Thursday.
“On behalf of my mother and our family, it is with great sadness that we announce the passing of my father, the Right Honorable Brian Mulroney, the 18th Prime Minister of Canada,” he said in a post on X.
Born in the French-speaking province of Quebec, Mulroney worked as a lawyer and then a business executive before successfully running for the leadership of the center-right Progressive Conservatives in 1983 and entering parliament that same year.
Mulroney led the Conservatives to a historic victory over Pierre Trudeau's Liberals the following year and retained power in the 1988 election.
During his nine-year tenure, Mulroney emulated the liberal economic policies that prevailed in the United States and the United Kingdom during the 1980s under Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.
One of his most important achievements was the signing of the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement with Reagan in 1988.
The agreement, which was later expanded to include Mexico as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), helped boost Canadian exports but was criticized in subsequent years for encouraging outsourcing of jobs to cheaper locations.
“Overall, it's been a success,” Mulroney said in an interview with CBC in 2012. “It hasn't been a panacea, but I've never seen it that way.”
Mulroney, Canada's last Cold War leader, also opposed apartheid in South Africa, forged a historic acid rain treaty with Washington and led efforts to respond to the 1984 Ethiopian famine.
Mulroney resigned in 1993 with the lowest approval rating in Canadian history amid growing separatist sentiment in Quebec.
In the following election, the Progressive Conservative Party suffered one of the worst defeats in modern political history, losing 154 of 156 seats in parliament.
Brian Mulroney loved Canada. I am devastated to learn of his passing.
He never stopped working for Canadians and always sought to make this country an even better place to call home. I will never forget the ideas he shared with me over the years: he was generous, tireless…
– Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 29, 2024
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday he was “devastated” to learn of Mulroney's death.
“He never stopped working for Canadians and always sought to make this country an even better place to call home. “I will never forget the ideas he shared with me over the years: he was generous, tireless and incredibly passionate,” Trudeau said on X.
“As we mourn his passing and keep his family and friends in our thoughts, let us also recognize – and celebrate – Mr. Mulroney's role in building the modern, dynamic and prosperous country we all know today.”
After leaving politics, Mulroney faced scrutiny over a leaked letter revealing that police had accused him of accepting bribes from a German-Canadian arms dealer, Karlheinz Schreiber.
Mulroney sued the Liberal government and won an apology and damages for the claims in 1997. Mulroney later apologized for accepting payments from Schreiber and denied illegal conduct, saying that agreeing to be introduced to Schreiber was “the biggest mistake in life, by far.”
