The boss

“Garth!”

I was walking down a stone corridor in the Centre Block when I heard that voice. Turning, I saw a clot of burly-looking guys with wires in their ears and in the midst was a bear of a man with silver hair and a grey suit. Beside him, calling to me, was the prime minister.

“Come and meet this guy,” Brian Mulroney said. And he gestured towards Boris Yeltsin.

The president of Russia beamed at me and extended his paw. I was a nobody MP. He was famous and powerful, a global beacon of democratic hope. But because Mulroney was gracious and inclusive to this bearded guy in the hallway, Yeltsin responded. He grasped my hand with both of his. And the moment passed.

The prime minister did the same when the US president came to visit. And Nelson Mandela. And the Queen. Despite being an inexperienced newbie MP when I arrived on the Hill, after ripping into government policies as a rebel newspaper columnist, Mulroney gave me a job. He put me in charge of an influential House of Commons all-party committee. He asked me to work with Mike Wilson, the finance minister, on tax reform. He made me feel like it all mattered.

After he passed yesterday, many people said the same. Mulroney was a driven, ambitious, focused man, but he also understood human nature. The unexpected gesture, word of support or act of kindness defined his time in power. His opponents respected him because he reached out on a personal level. When that bond was made, they could all move forward to serve the greater good, even as adversaries.

Mulroney knew enough to put me to work, give me space, let me contribute in my own way. I dragged a giant Debt Clock to Ottawa to underscore worries about the deficit. He was cool with that. I held conferences to lobby for income-splitting within families and for recognizing property rights in law. He tolerated it. When he resigned and I was one of six people running to replace him (without a prayer of succeeding), he called me after my convention speech. “You made a difference,” he said. “And now my wife is voting for you.”

Beyond appreciating the personal connection, Mulroney made a deep impression with his vision and the courage to effect it. Free trade was a huge gamble. It was fiercely fought. But it was the right thing to pursue in the late 1980s in the teeth of enhanced US protectionism. The GST was another roll of the dice. He knew it would be immensely unpopular to have a value-added tax in Canada, and Mulroney was well aware the Liberals would base the next campaign on axing-the-tax. But the deficit (largely inherited from Pierre Trudeau) was massive. There was no option. He just did it. And we all paid the price. Gladly.

Those days had some hope. Reagan, Thatcher, Yeltsin, Bush, Gorbachev, Mulroney – leaders, it seemed, were willing to seek common ground and choose compromise over tribalism, empire or national glory. Being a conservative meant discipline when it came to finances and order, without trying to tell people who to love or how to manage their bodies. In a stormy caucus meeting one day I watched him stand up to the strong anti-abortion faction in the room. “You will put water in your wine,” he said, “because you have no right to do otherwise.”

Well, that was progressive conservativism. Ultimately it was swept away by the harder-right, no-compromise Reform movement, which ascended Stephen Harper to office after years of centrist Liberalism. When I was elected again, the Conservative PM viewed me with suspicion, then hostility as a ‘red Tory’. Mulroney had turned me from rebel into supporter. Harper turned me back. He then threw me out after I fought 40-year, zero-down mortgages, included opposition leaders in my blogs and lobbied for reforms, like the creation of a TFSA.

Mulroney harnessed people. Harper controlled them. And over time voters came to see their elected members are sycophantic party sheep. Worse, decades after Mulroney fought Apartheid and Gorbachev downed the wall, we have a world with Trump and Putin, polarized factions, war and risk. The hardening of politics has meant the dehumanization of foes. Look at the daily headlines. The social media slurs. This is not going in the right direction.

Brian Mulroney was never a buddy of mine. I was not part of his inner circle. I was just a worker bee during his time. His travails after leaving office were not in my sphere, nor did I care. He was a consequential man of stature and talent. A patriot without being a zealot. He was both principled and pliant. He added to my life.

Thank you.