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Right Hook
JJ McCullough, OP Columnist

ere was much hype earlier this year when noted politi-

tal gadfly, Peter C. Newman, released his latest book, The
ecret Mulroney Tapes. The media branded it with all sorts of
aclines: the most controversial book of the year, a shock-
ng glimpse at the real Mulroney, disturbing, scandalous,

c. Never one to resist political gossip, I bought the book
shortly after it came out. Last week, the CBC followed up the
best-seller by releasing a two-hour documentary adaptation
bf The Secret Tapes, an event which has rekindled interest in

anada’s 18th Prime Minister.

Whether in print or on screen, the titular tapes in ques-
on are fascinating, but not for the reasons I was initially
ed to believe. Though the media has been quick to portray
ulroney’s private comments as a string of damning self-
ndictments, I find his words actually portray the former PM
n a rather positive light.
Indeed, most of the supposedly shocking things he says

nethinking Canada’s Worst Prime Minister

are really just personal insights into topics that should be
conventional wisdom anyway. Mulroney harshly criticizes the
Ottawa press gallery for having a strong liberal bias—which
it does. He condemns the nation’s capital for possessing a
culture of blatant institutional nepotism, bureaucratic crony-
ism, and ideological elitism—which it has. He blasts fellow
politicians Joe Clark, Kim Campbell, and John Turner for be-
ing incompetent, bumbling morons—which they were. Most
of what Mulroney says is only shocking if you currently em-
brace the standard Liberal talking points about Canada, and
celebrate the progressive Ottawa civil service, the brilliance
of the “Red Tories,” and so on. Honesty is always unnerving.

The tapes have also been hyped for supposedly revealing
a paranoid, Nixonian prime minister; but in reality, much of
Mulroney’s expressed paranoia is perfectly logical, consider-
ing that for much of his time in office there was, in fact, an
almost unwavering, coordinated media campaign to discredit
the man.

For eight years, the Ontario press was unwaveringly hos-
tile to the Prime Minister, portraying him as everything from
a Pinochet-esque American puppet ruler to a sadistic tyrant
trying to poison the nation by knowingly feeding “tainted
tuna” to its citizens. The very fact that even today “Mul-
roney” is synonymous with “Satan” in much of Canada is a
reflection of just how successful a concentrated propaganda
effort can be. A whole generation of Canadians are now
growing up with no concept of Mulroney, other than that of
a monster to be hated. He has, in essence, become Emmanu-
el Goldstein from Orwell’s 1984—an exaggerated caricature
of evil whose very name is supposed to garner no reaction
except anger, even if we cannot quite articulate why.

The fact that Mulroney’s most prominent (and controver-
sial) political pet causes, such as free trade, balanced budgets,
and the GST have all been eagerly embraced, celebrated, and
perpetuated by his Liberal successors represents an uncom-

fortable reality that has, in turn, been effectively airbrushed
from much of the national consciousness. In the tapes,
Mulroney predicted history would eventually warm to his
accomplishments. But not even he could have predicted that
the history of his rule would ultimately be re-written to the
point where even the gains of his legacy would be ascribed
to someone else.

Canada has barely possessed any prime ministers worth
describing as great. We may be taught to regard John A.
MacDonald as a heroic George Washington type figure, but
at best, the man’s status is due largely to the fact that he was
in the right place at the right time. Other historic characters,
like Laurier and MacKenzie King seem to be popular only
because they didn’t rock the boat. Their great “leadership”
was simply a matter of making popular decisions and follow-
ing whatever were the prevailing political winds at the time.

Mulroney made many bad decisions—probably too many
in fact—but he was a leader with a critical mind who wasn’t
afraid to express dissatisfaction with the status quo or seek to
change it. He was Canada’s only prime minister who was not
born and bred as a career politician, and The Secret Mulroney
Tapes are fascinating for precisely that reason.

Only a man like Mulroney, who was both an insider and
an outsider to Ottawa, could offer the sort of insight into the
world of Canadian politics, politicians, and media expressed
on Newman’s recordings. His criticisms are as valid today as
they were 20 years ago, if only someone could be bothered
to listen.

Mulroney was a man of considerable innovation, skill,
and foresight, yet even now his legacy is being re-written by
a media incapable of portraying him as anything other than a
demonic puppy-eater. The fact that his considerable politi-
cal genius may go ignored is one of the great tragedies of
Canadian history.

Jink Oink Oink!

Left Overs
lain Reeve, OP Columnist

agine the shock I felt when, with all other newspapers in the
store sold out, I glanced down at last week’s Vancouver Province
o discover that our brave and heroic MLAs had unanimously
voted in favour of not only a 15 percent pay raise, but also the
einstatement of an incredibly favourable pension deal which
ad gone the way of the dodo some years past.
What initially filled my heart with disgust and rage was
at the BC Liberals actually had the audacity to give them-
selves such a massive pay raise after denying much smaller

pays to control your own raises

raises to two major unions in the last six months alone. No
doubt both the BCTF and the BCGEU found the prospect
pretty rich. But, being the bleeding heart lefty I am, what
broke my heart was that the NDP went along with it. Here
we have a two-party legislature, where every point should
be contested till the end, where almost every issue has been
a point of debate, and the first major thing to slide through
without debate is a pay raise!

Maybe politicians are all just greedy self-serving jerks after all.

Well, before I go jumping to conclusions, let’s stop and
think about this. Everyone has had their hand caught in the
cookie jar once or twice; it’s just that this was 79 hands in a
billion-dollar cookie jar.

So, as with a child, it’s best to see how they react to being
caught. Let’s just say that reactions have been varied. NDP
leader Carole James, upon getting wind of the rightful public
outrage about the shadiness of the whole ordeal, quickly re-
tracted her party’s support and publicly apologized for drop-
ping the ball. It was nice to see Doctor James with her finger
so close to the public’s pulse long after the patient had died.

The day the NDP backed out, she was quoted as follows:
“T entered public life to do politics differently, to help re-
establish faith in our democratic institutions, and to provide
new leadership and a new tone to the public dialogue. The
NDP Caucus takes full responsibility for failing to meet that
standard on this issue.”

First off, considering this is a major blunder after just a

few months in office, you should try to keep your principles
a little more carefully in mind. Second off, I fail to see how
this was a hard issue to predict. People hate it when politi-
cians give themselves raises. They hate it even more when
they have made a recent habit of refusing to give raises to
other people. Hypocrites suck, in life and in politics.

As two-faced and irritating as the NDP has been on this
subject, the Liberals take the cake. It takes a lot of guts to
admit to the public you goofed up. It takes cajones the size
of wrecking balls to not only refuse to admit you screwed up,
but to then blame the other guys for backing out. With peer
pressure skills like that, I’m glad I didn’t go to high school
with the Liberals. I probably would have taken up the pot
and ended up a brain-dead hippie.

The respective parties must learn two lessons. The first
is that giving yourself a raise, even if you honestly deserve
it, will always make you look like a douche bag. It’s ingrained
in the mind of every worker that if the boss gives himself a
raise when everyone else needs one, he sucks. Best solu-
tion? Pass the buck. Independent committees work wonders.
Second lesson: If you are going to be a douche bag and give
yourself a raise, don’t be hush hush about it. This country is
paranoid about every buck the government spends nowa-
days, more so over the past year.

Be smart, we don’t need to give people any more reasons
to disengage from the system. Leave that to the pros at the
federal level.