Canada Changes Course

After a smashing victory, Mulroney's Tories get set to move a nation

The favorable opinion polls, the encouraging reports from the provinces, the heavy turnout−all signs pointed to an election victory for Brian Mulroney. Thus the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party was not especially surprised when, at 7:37 p.m., an announcer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. crisply declared that Mulroney would be the country's next Prime Minister. But within 15 minutes, Mulroney and many of his 25 million fellow Canadians began to realize that something extraordinary was happening. By night's end the balloting had turned into nothing less than a landslide of Rocky Mountain proportions. In one of the biggest electoral sweeps in Canadian history, Mulroney's Tories captured 211 seats in the 282-member Parliament, up from 103 seats in the 1980 election. The Conservative Party won a plurality of popular votes in all of Canada's ten provinces, making it a truly national party for the first time in 20 years. Drowned in cheers of "Brian! Bri-an!" Mulroney, 45, thanked the 3,000 supporters gathered at an indoor hockey rink in his Quebec home town of Baie Comeau. Said the Prime Minister-elect: "Canada has responded to a call to national unity."

By contrast, the Liberal Party, headed by Prime Minister John Turner, won only 40 seats, down from 147 in 1980. The defeat was not only a loss for Turner but a national repudiation of the party dominated by the cosmopolitan, sometimes cavalier Pierre Elliott Trudeau, under whose leadership the Liberals had ruled Canada for all but nine months since 1968. Turner, a Toronto corporate lawyer who became his party's leader after Trudeau resigned as Prime Minister in June, came close to losing his own constituency in the western province of British Columbia. He eventually prevailed, 21,728 to 18,404. Though some party regulars grumbled about dumping Turner as Liberal leader last week, the white-thatched chieftain ignored the criticism. "The people of Canada from coast to coast have spoken," said Turner to a dispirited band of followers on election night. "Tomorrow I begin my task of rebuilding the Liberal Party."

Though the date has not been officially set, Mulroney is expected to be sworn in early next week. After moving to 24 Sussex Drive, the Prime Minister's official residence in Ottawa, only two months ago, Turner and his family will have to start packing again. One of Turner's last duties will be to play host to Pope John Paul II as he begins an eleven-day visit to Canada this week. Turner, a Roman Catholic, planned to be on hand for the Pope's arrival in Quebec City on Sunday.