Diane: In hindsight, it was surprisingly easy, bearing in mind that the Canadian political system rewarded the faithful who kept their opinion to themselves and parroted the leaders pronouncement at every turn. Members of Parliament of the ruling party were rewarded for their blind trust with cabinet posts or lesser, but still significant positions, such as Parliamentary Secretary. If you were in the private sector, academia or government your reward for being vocal in support of the government’s agenda put you in the running for one of the more than fifteen thousand patronage appointments that were within the purview of the Prime Minister – the most sought after being President of a Crown Corporation, appointment to the Senate, the Federal and Supreme Court System.

Johnny: Amazing!

Diane: And that’s not all! Would you believe that even the heads of the national police forces and security agencies were selected by the Prime Minister. The Americans, whose security concerns were stratospheric at the time compared to Canada’s, even after the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Americans still took the time and care to hold public hearings into the character and competency of candidates for the top jobs at the FBI and the CIA. In Canada, the whole process was shrouded in secrecy with no public consultation, with Parliament not even required to perform its customary rubber stamping.

Johnny: Incredible, absolutely incredible!

Diane: Mulroney faced two main obstacles in his quest, to quote former Prime Minister John Turner “to sell out the country”. The first obstacle was FIRA, the Foreign Investment Review Agency. FIRA, as was mentioned previously, was designed to scrutinize investments from abroad and ensure that they benefited Canada. The second obstacle to selling the country dates back to the founding of the nation and was called The National Policy. It was a policy that was put in place in the 1870s by none other than that great Canadian, would you believe, Conservative Prime Minister, John A. Macdonald. It was, in Macdonald’s words, a policy to “benefit the agricultural, the mining, the manufacturing and other interest of the Dominion”. At its heart, it was simply an effective system of tariffs and levies meant to protect sectors of the economy that MacDonald felt were crucial to the country’s prosperity and security.

Johnny: It is remarkable that it was a Conservative Prime Minister who undid the work of another Conservative Prime Minister.

Diane. Mulroney was a Conservative in name only. In my opinion he was a 19th century capitalist. Dickens would have recognized him. A true Conservative wants to preserve the values and traditions that have stood the test of time and move forwards not backwards.

Johnny: Which of the two did he tackle first? FIRA or The National Policy?