You probably remember the chin. That deep, operatic voice. Maybe you remember the way he sang "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" with Ronald Reagan, or perhaps you just remember the sheer anger people felt toward him by the time 1993 rolled around. Brian Mulroney was a man of massive contradictions. He won the biggest landslide in Canadian history and left office as the most hated man in the country.
Honestly, looking back from 2026, it’s wild how much our daily lives are still dictated by things he did forty years ago. Love him or hate him—and believe me, there isn’t much middle ground—you can't understand modern Canada without understanding the "Boy from Baie-Comeau."
The Trade Deal That Changed Everything
When we talk about Brian Mulroney, we have to talk about the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA). It’s basically the bedrock of our economy now, but at the time? It was a total street fight. People thought Canada would become the 51st state. They thought our culture would be swallowed whole by Hollywood and big American corporations.
Mulroney bet the farm on it. He believed that if Canada didn't open up, we’d just slowly wither away. It wasn't just about money; it was about forcing a quiet, colonial-era economy to grow some teeth.
Eventually, the FTA grew into NAFTA, and then CUSMA. We take it for granted today that we can buy stuff from across the border without thinking twice, but that reality was bought with a lot of political blood.
Why the GST still makes people twitch
Then there’s the Goods and Services Tax. The GST.
If you want to clear a room of older Canadians, just bring up the 1991 tax reform. Before Mulroney, the government hid taxes in the manufacturing process. You didn't see them; you just paid more for the toaster. Mulroney decided to make the tax visible.
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- He scrapped the hidden 13.5% federal sales tax.
- He replaced it with a visible 7% GST.
- The country absolutely lost its mind.
It was a smart move for the books, but a disaster for his popularity. People hated seeing that extra charge on every single receipt. It felt like a personal insult every time you bought a coffee.
The "Greenest" Prime Minister?
This is the part that usually surprises people. You don't often associate 1980s Conservatives with radical environmentalism, but Mulroney was actually a bit of a trailblazer here.
He didn't just talk about the environment; he actually got things signed. He pushed Reagan—hard—on acid rain. At the time, sulfur dioxide from American plants was literally killing Canadian lakes. Mulroney used his personal friendship with the "Gipper" to land the 1991 Air Quality Agreement.
He also presided over the Montreal Protocol. That's the deal that saved the ozone layer. Seriously. Without that agreement, we’d all be wearing SPF 1000 just to go to the mailbox. He was also the first Western leader to jump on board with the fight against Apartheid in South Africa, often clashing with Margaret Thatcher to do it.
The Great Constitutional Heartbreak
If trade and the environment were his wins, the Constitution was his "Moby Dick." He spent years trying to get Quebec to formally sign onto the Canadian Constitution. He wanted "Canada with its head held high."
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It didn't happen.
The Meech Lake Accord failed. The Charlottetown Accord failed. These weren't just boring legal meetings; they were moments where the country almost physically pulled apart. The failure of these deals led directly to the rise of the Bloc Québécois and almost led to the end of Canada in the 1995 referendum.
A Legacy of "Big" Politics
Mulroney didn't do small. He didn't do "incremental change."
He swung for the fences every single time.
- He privatized Petro-Canada and Air Canada.
- He dealt with the aftermath of the Air India bombing.
- He created the territory of Nunavut.
By the time he resigned in 1993, his approval rating was somewhere around 12%. That is objectively basement-level. His party was basically deleted from the map in the following election, going from a massive majority to just two seats. Two. You could fit the entire caucus in a Prius.
But here’s the kicker: successive Liberal governments, specifically under Jean Chrétien, didn't undo his biggest moves. They kept the GST. They kept Free Trade. They realized that while the man was unpopular, the math was solid.
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What we can learn from the Mulroney Era
History has been surprisingly kind to Brian Mulroney lately. When he passed away in 2024, the tributes weren't just from his own party. They were from everyone. People realized that even if they disagreed with his methods, the guy had a vision for what Canada could be—a major player on the world stage, not just a quiet neighbor to the north.
If you’re looking to understand why Canada looks the way it does today, stop looking at the current headlines for a second. Look at the 1980s.
Moving Forward: How to Navigate the Legacy
To really grasp the impact of this era, you should:
- Compare the original FTA to current CUSMA rules. You'll see the DNA of Mulroney's deal in almost every paragraph.
- Look at your tax return. The GST/HST credit that helps lower-income Canadians exists because of the 1991 overhaul.
- Research the Montreal Protocol. It’s the gold standard for how the world can actually fix an environmental crisis when it wants to.
The "Mulroney years" weren't just a period of time; they were a total renovation of the Canadian house. We’re still living in the rooms he built.
To deepen your understanding of Canadian federalism, compare the failed Meech Lake Accord with the 1982 Patriation of the Constitution. This helps clarify why the "Quebec question" remains a delicate balance in federal politics today. You can also track the evolution of the Conservative Party from the Progressive Conservatives of the 80s to the modern CPC to see how Mulroney's "big tent" strategy eventually fractured and reformed.