Ex-Canada PM Brian Mulroney, father of North American free trade, dead at 84
- Brian Mulroney served almost a decade as prime minister, struck free trade deal with the United States
- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Mulroney an ‘extraordinary statesman’ who will be deeply missed
Former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney, who made his political mark in the 1980s with the signing of a groundbreaking free trade agreement with the United States that later expanded to include Mexico, died on Thursday. He was 84.
“It is with great sadness we announce the passing of my father,” Caroline Mulroney, a politician in Ontario, said on X. “He died peacefully, surrounded by family.”
Brian Mulroney, Canada’s last Cold War leader, opposed apartheid in South Africa and helped secure a landmark treaty on acid rain with Washington.
But he brought in a consumption tax still reviled by Canadians to this day, and his efforts to drive constitutional reform, in large part to bring wayward Quebec into the fold, ended in failure.
Born on March 20, 1939 in Quebec to a family with Irish roots, Mulroney entered university at 16, where he first got involved with the Progressive Conservatives (now known as the Conservative Party).
