Brian Mulroney

Martin Brian Mulroney (1939–2024) led the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to two consecutive majority governments, winning 211 seats in the 1984 federal election—then the largest majority in Canadian history—and a second majority in 1988. A lawyer from Baie-Comeau, Quebec, he was fluently bilingual and built an electoral coalition that combined Western conservatives with Quebec nationalists.

Mulroney's tenure reshaped Canada's economic and foreign policy posture. His government negotiated the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement (signed 1988, in force 1 January 1989) with the Reagan administration, then expanded it into the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Mexico, signed in 1992 and implemented under his successors in 1994. Domestically, he introduced the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in 1991, replacing the Manufacturers' Sales Tax, and pursued large-scale privatization of Crown corporations including Air Canada and Petro-Canada.

His constitutional agenda sought to bring Quebec into the 1982 Constitution Act. The Meech Lake Accord (1987) failed ratification in June 1990 when Manitoba and Newfoundland did not approve it, and the broader Charlottetown Accord was rejected in a national referendum on 26 October 1992. These failures contributed to the rise of the Bloc Québécois and Reform Party, fragmenting the Canadian right.

On the international stage, Mulroney was an outspoken critic of South African apartheid, pressing for Commonwealth sanctions against the wishes of Margaret Thatcher, and championed environmental diplomacy, signing the Canada–US Air Quality Agreement (1991) on acid rain. He also committed Canadian forces to the 1991 Gulf War coalition.

Facing approval ratings in the low teens, Mulroney resigned as party leader in February 1993 and was succeeded by Kim Campbell. The Progressive Conservatives were reduced to two seats in the October 1993 election. He died on 29 February 2024.