Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau praised Mulroney's role in creating a “modern, dynamic and prosperous country.”
Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who led Canada to a sweeping free trade agreement with the United States, has died. He was 84 years old.
Mulroney, who ruled Canada from 1984 to 1993, passed away peacefully surrounded by his family, his daughter Caroline Mulroney announced Thursday.
“On behalf of my mother and our family, it is with great sadness that we announce the passing of my father, Canada's 18th Prime Minister Brian Mulroney,” she said in a post on X.
Born in the French-speaking province of Quebec, Mulroney worked as a lawyer and then a businessman before running for leadership of the centre-right Progressive Conservative Party in 1983 and becoming an MP later that year.
Mulroney led the Conservatives to a historic victory over Pierre Trudeau's Liberals the following year and remained in power in the 1988 election.
During his nine years in office, Mulroney copied the liberal economic policies that flourished in the United States and Britain under Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
One of his most important accomplishments was signing the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement with President Reagan in 1988.
The agreement, which was later expanded to include Mexico as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), helped expand Canadian exports, but was later criticized for encouraging the outsourcing of jobs to cheaper regions.
“Generally speaking, this was a success,” Mulroney said in a 2012 interview with CBC. “It wasn't a panacea, but I never thought of it that way.”
Mulroney, Canada's last Cold War leader, also opposed apartheid in South Africa, signed a landmark acid rain treaty with Washington, and led efforts to address the 1984 Ethiopian famine. .
Mulroney resigned in 1993 with the lowest approval ratings in Canadian history amid rising separatist sentiment in Quebec.
In the next election, the Progressive Conservative Party suffered the worst wipeout in modern political history, losing 154 of the 156 seats in Congress.
Brian Mulroney loved Canada. He is shocked to learn of his death.
He never stopped working for Canadians, always striving to make this country an even better place to call home. I will never forget the insights he gave me over the years. He was generous and tireless.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 29, 2024
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday he was “shocked” to hear of Mulroney's death.
“He never stopped working for Canadians and always strived to make this country an even better place to call home. Insights he shared with me over the years I'll never forget him. He was generous, tireless and incredibly passionate,” Trudeau told X.
“As we continue to mourn his loss and keep his family and friends in mind, let us recognize and celebrate Mr. Mulroney's role in building the modern, dynamic, and prosperous country we know today. Isn't that so?”
After leaving politics, Mulroney faced intense scrutiny over a leaked letter revealing that he had been accused by police of accepting bribes from German-Canadian arms dealer Karlheinz Schreiber.
Mulroney sued the Liberal government and won an apology and damages over the claim in 1997. Mulroney later apologized for accepting money from Shriver while denying any wrongdoing on her part, and she said agreeing to the introduction to Shriver was “the biggest mistake of her life so far.”
