Canada Changes Course

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Such cautionary talk, however, seemed wildly out of place last week as Mulroney prepared to assume his post. The Tory leader planned to closet himself with his aides in Ottawa to pick a Cabinet and prepare his party's address for the opening of Parliament. The speech is expected to outline, in greater detail than Mulroney did on the campaign trail, the Tory vision for Canada. If his race and his past are any guide, the new Prime Minister will describe a society that is tolerant in its vast diversity, compassionate toward its less fortunate members and, of course, more prosperous than the one he is inheriting. That last expectation will be especially difficult. But in the heady days between victory and taking office, Mulroney savored a far smaller problem, though one that neatly captured the magnitude of his mandate to put Canada on a new course. So many Progressive Conservatives were elected last week that the Tory benches in Parliament will not be able to hold them all. Some M.P.s will have to sit on the side of the aisle usually reserved for the opposition, crowding out the diminished ranks of those who ran Canada until the boy from Baie Comeau arrived.