Master of Persuasion: Brian Mulroney's Global Legacy by Fen Osler Hampson (review)

Canadian prime ministers are rarely remembered at home for their contributions on the international scene. Even Lester Pearson, perhaps the lone exception, achieved his fame as an external affairs minister in the Louis St Laurent government. However, a new book from noted Carleton University political scientist Fen Osler Hampson makes the case that Brian Mulroney, the Progressive Conservative prime minister (1984–93) most remembered for constitutional challenges and an unpopular sales tax, merits consideration as one of the most effective Canadian leaders on the world stage.

Hampson structures the book along thematic lines. Chapters range from Mulroney's handling of environmental concerns like acid rain, to war and peacekeeping, the end of the Cold War, continental trade, Ethiopian famine relief, and the end of South African apartheid. Through a series of 'lessons' outlined in each chapter, Hampson argues Mulroney's foreign policy achievements were partly due to his understanding 'that Canada's power and influence derive from its leaders' solid grasp of the nation's vital interests and a purposeful commitment to pursuing those interests and values on the world stage' (p. 7). At the heart of this understanding was also knowing the primus inter pares relationship Canada needs to maintain with the United States.

In unpacking Mulroney's foreign policy successes, Hampson finds a leader willing to ignore the cautious approach of the federal bureaucracy and take bold stances on rapidly changing world events, be it UN intervention in the Balkans (p. 205), German reunification (p. 179), or participation in the organisation of American states (p. 112). On these issues, Mulroney's actions were informed strongly by the time he invested in cultivating close relationships with world leaders like US presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, and German chancellor Helmut Kohl. Hampson contends that this investment in personal relationships allowed the former prime minister to play, 'a significant role in the most momentous world issues' not commensurate with the country's global middle power standing (p. 181). For example, he is credited by Kohl for making German reunification possible and by Nelson Mandela for isolating the apartheid regime. President Bush relied on Mulroney to mobilise French and Arab governments in support of the international coalition against Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War (pp. 197–8). So impressed was Bush by Mulroney's efforts that even he asked Mulroney if he would like to be nominated for secretary general of the UN (p. 181). These relationships also allowed Mulroney to negotiate a free trade agreement and an acid rain treaty with the US.

None of this is to say that Mulroney did not have his share of problems. Characteristic of Canadian governments before and since, the prime minister's rhetoric sometimes exceeded the country's reach. This was apparent in the early 1990s when Mulroney slashed the defence budget and reduced the Canadian military presence in Europe, much to the irritation of NATO allies (p. 189). Still, the book is a helpful reminder on the necessity of investing in meaningful personal diplomacy as '[n]eglect is the most corrosive diplomatic disease' (p. 94).