Marlene Jennings: What made me change my mind about Brian Mulroney

To me, he was faint background noise — until after he became prime minister and began advocating against apartheid. That caught my attention.

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Brian Mulroney was a name I became familiar with when he became a member of the Cliche Commission (1974-’75) on trade-union freedom in Quebec’s construction industry.   

My family has a deep history of trade unionism; my father was a longtime member of the CPR Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and several of his brothers were autoworkers with GM and Ford in Detroit. As for my maternal uncles, one was a long-haul trucker and the other a dock worker. So I can safely state that trade unionism was part of my DNA.

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I followed the Cliche Commission throughout its two years of work. Given my then-Maoist leanings, I expected it would invariably support the capitalist imperialism upon which Canadian society is built and would ensure the supremacy of the upper classes. 

I was young, idealistic and could only think in black and white. The nuances of colour escaped me at that time of youthful headiness and euphoria. Mulroney was a lawyer for the “employer,” so my view of him was skewed and not in favourable way.

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In the 1980s, when Mulroney won the Progressive Conservative leadership, it was faint background noise for me. I was then a member and delegate of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), studying law full time at Université du Québec à Montréal and working full time around seven months a year.

I didn’t really start paying attention to Mulroney until after he became prime minister and began advocating against apartheid and for economic sanctions against the racist South African regime. That definitely caught my attention.

And so I began to closely follow his statements and actions. By this time Mao and his little red book were far in my rear-view mirror. Politically I had moved closer to the centre-left. My views of Mulroney became tempered with the passage of time and the maturity I gained from my academic and professional experiences. His leadership — not only on apartheid, but also acid rain and free trade — made me see him in a new light. I now viewed him as a strong leader with a vision of Canada and Quebec that I agreed with.

Then came the revelations of the Karlheinz Schreiber affair and those envelopes of cash. This is not the place to rehash that drawn-out saga. Suffice to say I was by then a member of Parliament and quite self-righteous in my condemnation of Mulroney.

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In 2007 the House of Commons Standing Committee on Ethics began hearings on this affair. As a member of the committee, I heard first-hand from Mulroney his explanations of what happened and why. I had rarely heard a more honest and sincere statement of regret from anyone in my life. He openly admitted to lapses in judgment and felt deeply hurt at the damage done to his reputation and integrity. “My biggest mistake in life by far was ever agreeing to be introduced to Karlheinz Schreiber in the first place,” he told the committee.  

At the end of his testimony, Mulroney made a point of shaking hands and speaking with each member of the committee. When he approached me, he told me how proud and honoured he was to meet me in person — the first black Quebecer to be elected to Parliament in the history of Confederation. I was literally speechless that this former prime minister even knew who I was. He was proud and honoured to meet me

I will never forget the Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney. I will always have enormous respect and admiration for him. I came to understand that his qualities and accomplishments far outweighed his faults, failures and human fragilities. He was a great leader and prime minister. May he rest in peace. 

Marlene Jennings is a former president of the Quebec Community Groups Network and a former Liberal MP. She sits on the boards of several community organizations.

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