The bitter old hack Brian Mulroney is again attacking Pierre Trudeau. CTV states that in a soon to be released documentary Mulroney says Trudeau to blame for Meech failure. To me the failure of Meech is not bad, as I think as Clyde Well and Elijah Harper would agree, the accord was a bad deal and a blind attempt to make the provinces unequal. I can easily see why Trudeau would have objected.
But NOO Mr Mulroney, the man that brought us not so free trade, Jobs leaving Canada, the Airbus scandal and years of generally bad government, believes Trudeau did it because he hated him. No it was a good deal but Pierre hated Brian so he used Meech to stick it to him. (Sarcasm intended) If you believe that I have some nice northern Ontario swamp land that undoubtedly will increase in value, complete with swarms of mosquitos for sale, care to put in an offer.
These are some of Mr Mulroney’s choice words, they do kind of speak for themselves.
1. (Trudeau) called me a weakling, he called us cowards, he called the premiers snivellers.
2. You name it, it was all there, it was a vicious personal attack.
3.[Mr. Trudeau] is far from a perfect man.
4. [Mulroney claims] One of his (Trudeau’s) cabinet ministers, Francis Fox, said ‘Look, the only reason for this, is that Pierre Trudeau doesn’t want Brian Mulroney to succeed where he has failed’.
5. He had the option of being helpful, or being destructive — and he chose the destructive course
6. This is a man who questioned the Allies when the Jews were being sacrificed, and when the great extermination program was on, he was marching around Outremont [Montreal] on the other side of the issue.
7. Look, out of 11 million citizens of this country, there were a million people — young men from British Columbia to Newfoundland — who rose to fight the Nazis. The most evil machine ever known to man, trying to exterminate the Jews, everybody knew that, and all these young Canadians rose and went overseas to fight them. Pierre Trudeau was not among them. That’s a decision he made. He’s entitled to make that kind of decision. But it doesn’t qualify him for any position of moral leadership in our society.
So to sum it up Mr Mulroney said – Trudeau called me and those that sympathized with me names. He did it because he hated me it was personal, even Trudeau’s colleagues said so. He just did it to be destructive, besides Trudeau was a pro-Nazi draft dodger and thus an immoral person not qualified to lead Canada.
All this coming from the man whose government brought us the GST, Not-so-free trade, an era of jobs leaving Canada, and the airbus Scandal. Admittedly Trudeau was not perfect his political choices developed over time but Mulroney well he’s another story.
After he leaves the PM’s office he gets a $300.000 payment from Karlheinz Schreiber, a German-Canadian businessman. Through a spokesman, Mulroney said Schreiber paid him the money for consulting services to promote Schreiber’s pasta business. Schreiber disputes the claim, saying the only (pasta-related) service Mulroney ever performed was sending him a brochure. “What had he done for the money? Well, I learned to my great surprise that he worked with me on spaghetti.” Schreiber said the money was a gift made to assist Mulroney in the transition to private life. And none of this had anything to do with the fact Schreiber was associated with Airbus and was rumoured to have had at his disposal $20 million from Airbus for the payment of secret commissions.
The government said the charges could not be substantiated. Substantiated or not why the lies and underhanded dealings.
Trudeau’s actions may have been imperfect and wrong, but compared to the actions of Mr Mulroney who knowingly engaged in a far from moral transaction, he was a saint. Mr Mulroney is a bitter has-been, who wants to resurrect his reputation on the back of a far greater man. A greater man who was elected to power for many more years than Mr Mulroney . Trudeau gave us the charter or rights, and our own constitution he made us Canada not the colony of Canada. Well I guess we should be more impressed by the GST and corruption. Mr Mulroney grow up! Meech failed because it was not signed by all provinces not because Trudeau pointed out the obvious that it was capitulation on a stick. I’ll probably get criticised for a bit of ad hominem abuse of poor old Brian but considering the mud slinging he is now engaged in with a dead man I don’t feel quite so bad. Mulroney is a petulant child that does not like living in the shadow of Trudeau or the blinding light of his own failure.
Go ahead buy his memoirs they are probably good for a laugh or two.
What Was I Trying To Say ? 
In Today’s news Mr Mulroney has moved on to say he will never forgive Lucien Bouchard for betraying their friendship and conspiring to break up Canada, 17 years after he fired him from his cabinet, and note that “he [bouchard]won’t be coming to his [Mulroney’s] Furneral.”
Okay Mr Mulroney who are you going to hack at next. Bitter bitter bitter old man.
I think Radwanski’s analysis is right on.
He concedes that Trudeau was “a little harsh”, but notes that Trudeau was attacking Mulroney’s character over a constitutional deal that Trudeau thought would wreck the country. Mulroney, on the other hand,
is attacking a dead man’s character twenty years later because his feelings are still hurt, and doing so by dredging up stuff from his past that has absolutely nothing to do with the issue they were fighting over.
No question, Trudeau could be cold and arrogant. But the way both of them are viewed retrospectively suggests Canadians found that less off-putting that the pettiness that Mulroney is still letting define him.
One sign of maturity is the ability to ‘get over’ slights and disappointments. Sounds like “M” may be old, but not yet mature.
Cheers