WASHINGTON—In six simple words, former prime minister Brian Mulroney sweeps aside the glaring irony of his new political mission: assisting a Trudeau government, an assignment that will even see him participate in a cabinet session.
Mulroney once spent an entire chapter of his memoirs excoriating Pierre Trudeau—his personal nemesis, prime ministerial predecessor, and partisan rival. Yet his work with Trudeau’s son on the Canada-U.S. file culminated in an April 6 meeting with ministers on upcoming NAFTA renegotiations.
“That was then, now is now,” Mulroney said in an interview last week, when he was in Washington for the annual gathering of the Horatio Alger Society as it awarded scholarships to youth with troubled backgrounds.
“My wife and I have been friendly with the present prime minister—as has my family—for many years. He has always treated us with great courtesy and respect. He’s the one I deal with. He sets the tone.”
