Ottawa (AP) – Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney has died at the age of 84. His daughter Caroline wrote on the X platform (formerly Twitter) that he had fallen asleep peacefully surrounded by his family. Canada’s current Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, hailed Mulroney as an “extraordinary statesman” and someone “who had the courage to do great things.”
This Progressive Conservative Party (PC) politician was the country’s 18th Prime Minister and served from 1984 to 1993. His greatest achievement was the negotiation of the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) between Mexico, the United States and Canada, which came into force in 1994. Mulroney also strengthened relations with his American neighbor and spoke out against apartheid in South Africa.
In politics as a lawyer
Mulroney was born in the province of Quebec to Irish immigrants and spoke English and French. In the 1960s, the eloquent lawyer entered politics. With his Progressive Conservative Party, he won a landslide electoral victory in 1984.
However, he fell out of favor during his second term. Contributing factors were the current recession, high unemployment, the introduction of new taxes and the failure of a constitutional reform which aimed to integrate the predominantly French province of Quebec more closely into the federation with more rights.
“Whether anyone agrees with our solutions or not, no one will accuse us of shirking our responsibilities by ignoring the most controversial issues of our time,” he said in his resignation speech.
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