Brian Mulroney

Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ (/mʊlˈruːni/; born March 20, 1939) is a Canadian politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993. His tenure as prime minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and the Goods and Services Tax. Prior to his political career, he was a prominent lawyer and businessman in Montreal. He later ran for the Progressive Conservatives and won in a landslide in the 1984 Canadian federal election, defeating John Turner of the Liberals and Ed Broadbent of the NDP, not only winning every single province and territory but also capturing over 50% of the vote for the first time since 1958 and increasing his party's seats by 111, up to 211 seats, the highest amount of seats won by any party in Canadian history. The 6.3 million votes won by Mulroney also remained a record until the Liberals' victory in 2015.

Mulroney brought forth a constitutional reform, the Meech Lake Accord, in 1987, meant to persuade the government of Quebec to endorse the 1982 constitutional amendments. It was not ratified by the provincial governments of Manitoba and Newfoundland before the June ratification deadline, and thus met its demise in 1990. This loss led to another round of meetings in Charlottetown in 1991 and 1992. These negotiations culminated in Mulroney introducing the Charlottetown Accord, which would create extensive changes to the constitution, including recognition of Quebec as a distinct society. However, the agreement was defeated by a large margin in a national referendum in October 1992. The end of the Meech Lake Accord in 1990 created division in the country and sparked a revival of Quebec separatism, culminating in the creation and rise of the Bloc Québécois (BQ).

In foreign policy, Mulroney opposed the apartheid regime in South Africa and he met with many of the regime's opposition leaders throughout his tenure. His position put him at odds with the American and British governments, but also won him respect elsewhere. Mulroney's first term was marked by the Air India Flight 182 bombing in 1985, the largest mass killing in Canadian history. His response to the attack came under heavy criticism. The Mulroney government was also strongly against the U.S. intervention in Nicaragua under Reagan, and accepted refugees from El Salvador, Guatemala, and other countries with repressive regimes that were supported by the Reagan administration.

Mulroney made environmental protection a key focus of his government, and moved Canada to become the first industrialized country to ratify both the biodiversity convention and the climate change convention, which were agreed to at the United Nations Conference on the Environment. His government added significant new national parks (Bruce Peninsula, South Moresby, and Grasslands) and passed the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.

In his second term, Mulroney proposed the introduction of a national sales tax, the Goods and Services Tax (GST), to replace the Manufacturers' Sales Tax (MST). The unpopularity of the GST and the controversy surrounding its passage in the Senate, combined with the early 1990s recession and the collapse of the Charlottetown Accord, caused a stark decline in Mulroney's popularity, which induced him to resign and hand over his power to Kim Campbell, who became the 19th Prime Minister of Canada on June 25, 1993.