Brian Mulroney remembered as a 'giant' and trailblazer in driving free trade

Kim Campbell, who served as Canada's prime minister in 1993, remembers her predecessor for his pragmatism.

"He's had a remarkable and consequential life ... What's interesting about Brian Mulroney was his willingness to rethink things, and learn new things and change his mind," she told David Cochrane, host of CBC News Network's Power & Politics.

"He spent much of his early life thinking their free trade between Canada and the United States would be a non-starter, " said Campbell, who also served in Mulroney's Conservative cabinet.

But the negotiation of a free trade agreement with the United States — and later Mexico — is one of the most controversial policies of the Mulroney era.

Canada's 18th prime minister for nine years died earlier this week at age 84.

He was first elected to lead the country in 1984 after running a campaign promising to "refurbish" the Canada-U.S. relationship amid years of tension.

Those who worked with Mulroney's government say his ability to foster personal relationships helped seal an eventual trade deal with the U.S.

The seeds for the agreement were sown at the 1985 Shamrock Summit, when Mulroney hosted U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Quebec City. Both of Irish extraction, they famously sang lines from the folk song When Irish Eyes Are Smiling at the meeting that started on St. Patrick's Day.

WATCH | Mulroney, Reagan sing at the 1985 Shamrock Summit in Quebec City:

Fred Ryan, who served as Reagan's chief of staff, told CBC News Network that Mulroney left an impression on the president that helped pave the way to free trade negotiations.

The two "found they had a common world-view, they had a pride in their Irish heritage and they had a shared sense of humour — and that combination enabled those two men to find common ground to get things done in ways that really hadn't happened before," Ryan told CBC's Hillary Johnstone.

Ryan said Reagan and Mulroney shared a "vision" to enable free trade between the neighbouring countries.

"If not for the great chemistry between the two of them, [a trade deal] may not have happened."

Derek Burney, who was Mulroney's chief of staff and later Canada's ambassador to the U.S., said the negotiations were at risk of falling apart in 1987.

"It was a combination of him, his direct efforts with President Reagan and my negotiations with Jim Baker, who was the secretary of the Treasury at the time, that brought the agreement home," Burney told Nil Köksal, host of CBC Radio's As It Happens.

Louise Blais, a former diplomat and staffer in Mulroney's government, said one of the sticking points for Canada was to ensure the country could protect its cultural industries. But she credited Mulroney with fighting for an exemption on the cultural sector that eventually made it into the final agreement.

"He didn't leave any stone unturned and at times where it mattered, he put in that capital and he kept the talks going," she told CBC News.

1988 election campaign centred on free trade

Mulroney and Reagan signed the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement in January 1988. But Mulroney would face an election before the deal was ratified.

The 1988 federal campaign became a battle over free trade, a concept Business Council of Canada president Goldy Hyder said wasn't necessarily popular at the time.

"I was on campus in the University of Calgary at the time, and I will tell you looking back even then, there's no way free trade was going to pass based on what I was listening to every day," he told CBC News.

But Hyder said the fact Mulroney had initially opposed free trade gave him enough credibility to persuade voters to give him another mandate.

"I think in an odd way that gave him tremendous credibility. It gave the concept and him personally credibility that he said, 'I changed my mind.' Not a lot of politicians change their mind."

Hyder said the agreement, and the subsequent North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) deal that brought Mexico into the fold, helped transform the Canadian economy.

"Where are we without free trade? Where is Canada today? And the answer is we would not be the prosperous country that we are," Hyder said.

Blais argued the free trade deals Mulroney helped usher in paved the way to the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

"It really helped influence the way the global free trade architecture developed."

But not all Canadians are convinced free trade with the U.S. and Mexico was good for Canada.

Maude Barlow was one the most vocal opponents of free trade in the 1980s. In 1985, she co-founded the Council of Canadians, a citizens' group dedicated to the preservation of Canadian independence.

"I would argue that the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and NAFTA gutted the manufacturing sector in this country," she said..

While she staunchly stood against Mulroney's policies, Barlow said he passionately debated issues while maintaining civility with his opponents.

"I tell you it was really a very passionate fight about the soul of Canada," she said about free trade discussions.

"There's a civility that he had. Even when we were fighting, there was a civility which I think we could use today."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would eventually tap Mulroney for advice and help during the NAFTA renegotiations while Donald Trump was U.S. president. Canada finally signed the new NAFTA in 2019 and it came into force in mid-2020.

With a review of the deal on the horizon, in 2026, Hyder and Blais said the loss of Mulroney will be felt.

"When you lose a giant like Brian Mulroney, you lose that knowledge. And I don't think that we have had another prime minister … that really knew how to manage that relationship and knew how to manage the American psychology," Blais said.

"Trade deals are not about lawyers. They're not about the paper that they're written on. It is about the personal relationships between the leaders and I think what Mr. Mulroney was able to do was leverage decades of maintaining —  not just building them but maintaining — those relationships," Hyder said.

"That was his gift."