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[Instigator]

http://sympaticomsn.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1126532304966_70?hub=topstories

Mulroney book claims Trudeau destroyed Canada

An explosive new book quotes Brian Mulroney as saying Pierre Trudeau "destroyed" Canada.

"The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Confessions of a Prime Minister" details hours of interviews with Mulroney, his family and friends and quotes Mulroney as saying he was the best prime minister since Sir John A. Macdonald.

The book has been a closely guarded secret. Neither its author, Peter C. Newman, nor the subject matter, were revealed before now as Toronto-based publisher Random House feared a possible court injunction.

Today, however, some of those taped conversations have been made public -- revealing the former prime minister's indiscreet, but true feelings for many of his contemporaries.

In the book, Mulroney is convinced that former prime minister Pierre Trudeau was behind the undermining of the Meech Lake Accord.

Trudeau's motivation, according to Mulroney, was that "he didn't want anybody to succeed where he had failed.

Trudeau's contribution was not to build Canada but to destroy it, and I had to come in and save it."

Mulroney describes Meech as "the sweetest deal ever known to man and it was thrown away."

Canada's ambassador to the United States, Frank McKenna, was premier of New Brunswick during the time of the Meech Lake Accord.

McKenna told CTV's Canada AM that Trudeau's "intervention in Meech Lake was a pivotal moment."

"There's no doubt that he had a dramatically different view of the way Canada should be evolving from Prime Minister Mulroney," he said.

However McKenna stopped short of finding fault with Mulroney.

"I don't want to be critical of the prime minister," he added. "I know he had a lot of things to say and he has some bitterness and perhaps he's justified in some of it. But he was very good to me and we did at lot of good things together."

The book shows Mulroney seething after his lifelong friend Lucien Bouchard departs to lead the fight for Quebec separation following the failure of the Meech Lake Accord.

"I have never known a more vulgar expression of betrayal and deceit," Mulroney is quoted as saying.

The former prime minister also reveals his hatred for the media.

"Business is booming," Mulroney says, "our jobs are up and everything is going fine.

"But the Toronto Star says Brian Mulroney is a shit. So I change newspapers. I went to The Globe and Mail, which says I'm a spendthrift and an asshole. So I decided to go to the Sun -- a real conservative paper run by Paul Godfrey. I read Claire Hoy's column, and I'm a thief and a murderer."

Speaking on CTV's Canada AM, Jane Taber, of The Globe and Mail, described author Peter C. Newman as "a very good friend" of the former prime minister.

"He had access to documents, cabinet documents and interviews with the principals," Taber told Canada AM.

"Mulroney wanted this book written, he said warts and all. He didn't want a puff job."

And 'warts and all' the book certainly appears to be.

Mulroney is quoted as describing his short-lived successor, Kim Campbell, as a "very vain person who blew the 1993 election because she was too busy screwing around with her Russian boyfriend" resulting in "the most incompetent campaign I've seen in my life."

The former prime minister also expresses outrage that the tainted-tuna scandal of 1985 could ever have reached the heights it did.

"You would think that 10,000 people had died because of rancid tuna," Mulroney says.

"No one was even sick. . . . The media gave more publicity to tuna than to the Gulf War."

And in a moment of praise for himself, Mulroney says: "Nobody has achievements like this ... you cannot name a Canadian prime minister who has done as many significant things as I did, because there are none."

However former Ontario premier David Peterson, who stood by Mulroney through the wrangling over the Meech Lake Accord, is quoted as saying he would "never trust" the former prime minister.

"He is a pathological liar," Peterson says. "In fairness, I don't believe he knows he's lying. . . . you couldn't take anything he said at face value. His essential Achilles heel is his baloney."

The 462-page "Secret Mulroney Tapes" is likely to top the bestseller lists, something predicted some 20 years ago by Mulroney.

"The publishers don't have to worry about whether this thing is going to sell," he told Newman.

"The only question they're going to have to wonder about
is whether they've got enough paper in the forest to print the fucking books .... I'll tell you this, if there ain't a good book in this, there's not a good book in Canadian history."

Newman himself displays some admiration for Mulroney, describing him as "the most radical prime minister in Canadian history."

Newman conducted 330 formal interviews over the years
-- 98 of them with Mulroney. He ended up with 7,400 pages of transcripts containing no less than 1.8 million words

The book arrives at a time when there has been some softening of public opinion toward the once unpopular former prime minister, in part due to his recent illness.

"I think public sympathy was changing," Jane Taber told Canada AM.

"But I think it's going to change back as a result of these quotes."

As Newman himself says:"He bugs us still."

This is going to be fun.

 

[Memles]

There is really isn't much of a surprise in any of his comments (I am particularly fond of the dig at Kim Campbell, though. It's quite humorous.) It is obviously clear that Mulroney is egotistical, but this isn't exactly out of character.

 

[Instigator]

Maybe, but it's fun to have it on video and in print.

 

[Spruce Moose]

Mulroney destroyed Canada. Trudeau was in there too long and made too many mistakes in his last five years, but it was this c**ksucker that sold us down the river.

"Nobody has achievements like this ... you cannot name a Canadian prime minister who has done as many significant things as I did, because there are none."

Yes Brian, your achievements being destroying the PC party and leaving office as the most hated/despised PM in Canadian history. Fuck off.

 

[OpinionatedCyborg]

Lyin' Brian's at it again.

 

[bishoptl]

"But the Toronto Star says Brian Mulroney is a shit. So I change newspapers. I went to The Globe and Mail, which says I'm a spendthrift and an asshole. So I decided to go to the Sun -- a real conservative paper run by Paul Godfrey. I read Claire Hoy's column, and I'm a thief and a murderer."

If the shoe fits, wear it. Scumbag all-chin Reagan-cozying lying bitch motherfucker. That son of a whore tried to sell Canada down the river with Meech and it's only by the grace of God that he didn't succeed. Most-hated Prime Minister in history? Without a doubt.

That Kim Campbell blast was pretty funny, though.

 

[Shinobi]

Not that funny...she was PM for what, five months? Bill Clinton couldn't have managed a win with that little time.

Anyway, I've never thought much of that idiot Trudeau, but Mulroney and his fat ass chin almost makes Dubya look good. Fuck him to death...fuck his idiot son too.

 

[calder]

If the shoe fits, wear it. Scumbag all-chin Reagan-cozying lying bitch motherfucker.

Aaaaand now I don't have to say anything. Thanks!

Been a while since I heard the phrase "Meech Lake Accord". :lol One of those things that seemed so important then and yet now I realize that I have no idea what my opinion of it would be today. I'd have to research it just to remember if I'd feel the same way about... whatever exactly happened.

 

[Diablos]

Not that funny...she was PM for what, five months? Bill Clinton couldn't have managed a win with that little time.

Anyway, I've never thought much of that idiot Trudeau, but Mulroney and his fat ass chin almost makes Dubya look good. Fuck him to death...fuck his idiot son too.

I know nothing about Canadian politics but I'd rather have a dude with a triple chin in office than Dubya. That is all.

 

[TheOMan]

I know nothing about Canadian politics but I'd rather have a dude with a triple chin in office than Dubya. That is all.

It's not a chin like that...think Jay Leno.

 

[Diablos]

So what. Can he talk? Can he lead? Good enough.
Politics is not a swimsuit issue.

 

[Hitokage]

Little does Diablos know, they're not really upset about his chin any more than people are upset over Chimp's less evolved features... it's just something convenient to throw into an insult.

 

[pestul]

 

[calder]

Mulroney was an able politician... but he was one of those effectively evil types rather than the evil inept clown you have in Bush. Both are lousy leaders, but at least Mulroney gave you the impression he was somewhat competent while he was fucking you over to enrich his filthy rich friends and shady business partners. He was (mostly) effective at doing his thing, but he was a lying whore with no concept of decency who assumed everyone else wanted to be an American as badly as he did.

 

[SickBoy]

No, I'm afraid you are

The one thing I do give Mulroney is that his efforts to fix the constitution were well-placed, and it's a shame they failed. It would have been a great legacy and good for the country. Instead, his legacy is the GST ... which was good for the country in its own way, but I don't much care for in the bigger picture.

 

[sc0la]

I can't be the only one who opened the thread thinking, "How could Doonesbury have destroyed Canada?" Right?

You are not alone.

 

[Shinobi]

So what. Can he talk? Can he lead? Good enough.

It wasn't nearly good enough in our case...or yours for that matter.