Thank you Prime Minister | Unpublished
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RobDekker's picture
Ottawa, Ontario
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Rob currently works on Parliament Hill and is on the Daybreak Non-Profit Housing Board of Directors.  He writes regularly on his blog #RedHeartBlueSign at www.redheartbluesign.wordpress.com on lifestyle, political and personal topics.

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Thank you Prime Minister

March 16, 2024

You can blame me being a Conservative on Brian, Brian Mulroney.

I officially joined the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in the leadership race of 1993, I bought a membership and supported Kim Campbell in her leadership campaign.  I supported Ms. Campbell as I thought she would be the one to continue the legacy of Brian Mulroney, I also wanted to support the Ms. Campbell’s campaign to be Canada’s 1st Prime Minister – Canada was ready for this!

I met Canada’s 18th Prime Minister once; it was Fall of 2022 when he spoke at an event at the Canadian War Museum to commemorate the Veterans of the Persian Gulf War.  Mulroney was the Prime Minister that sent Canada to that war and in the last few years he was part of a campaign to have the Persian Gulf War Veterans reclassified as ‘war veterans’ and not ‘duty of service’ veterans.  

His vocal and active support for these veterans is just one of several reasons why I have the respect and gratitude I have for Brian Mulroney.

I watched both leadership campaigns Mr. Mulroney ran for the PC Party of Canada, I admired his confidence and his humility.  He was the type of political candidate I sought to become, and did not come close to being, but no one can become Brian Mulroney.  There can only be one.

Mulroney proved Canada was a country to be proud of and a country to be respected internationally.  I was in my 30’s when the GST was put in place, and I understood what it was there and was happy to see a government policy be clear as to what its function was.  In this case the GST was to go towards the national debt.  In 2022-23 the GST brought in $45.4B, the 2023 budget document does not state if the current government applied this to the debt.  It would be a shame if this was not being done.

Mulroney’s international stature is a source of Canadian pride, he stood up to the US and UK on apartheid, he rebuilt our relationship with the US and from that was successful with reducing Acid rain and increasing trade with our neighbour to the south.  He increased Canada’s influence in the Francophonie.

His belief Canada as a whole is better with Quebec is reflected in both the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords.  I was disappointed when neither passed.

More than a week after his death, much has been said about his tenure of Prime Minister, what he did nationally and internationally and how these values he 

Prime Minister Mulroney will be lying in State in Ottawa March 19th and 20th before his funeral in Montreal on Saturday March 23rd.  I will be in line to pay my respects to one of Canada’s greatest nation builders.   

Thank you, Prime Minister, I am who I am, I have done politically what I have done, I am working where I am and I am the type of Canadian I am because of you.



References

March 16, 2024

Comments

Peter Stockdale
April 9, 2024

I can agree that Brian Mulroney "he stood up to the US and UK on apartheid, he rebuilt our relationship with the US and from that was successful with reducing Acid rain and increasing trade with our neighbour to the south.  He increased Canada’s influence in the Francophonie." I would add that he was the last Canadian prime minister to really attempt to get close to the Pearson target for development assistance.

His attempts to get the sitting government of Quebec in the Constitution was a wholesale failure, creating the Bloc Quebecois, with his own minister Lucien Bouchard at the helm. He did not understand that referenda results are often a poll on the popularity of the government, and that suddenly shifting from centuries of elite accomodation involving intense negotiation, to vaguely interested and engaged citizens with little contact with the other solitude was a recipe for disaster. Of course, a lot of his unpopularity came from the GST, which further dumped responsibility for taxation on poorer people, and made richer wealthy individuals and corporations. Moving away from the Autopact to NAFTA crushed the North American auto industry in Ontario and Quebec, though Japan and Korea did move in, but most slipped down into Mexico.