Canada Changes Course

(6 of 10)

Mulroney was catapulted to prominence in 1974, when he was appointed to a three-member commission investigating corruption in the Quebec construction industry. Thousands of Canadians followed the panel's televised hearings, which seethed with daily testimonies of bribes and beatings. Mulroney and his fellow commission members received several death threats and were given round-the-clock police guards. The panel's 600-page final report led to 24 indictments. Emboldened by that burst of public acclaim, Mulroney decided to run for the Tory party leadership in 1976. He barnstormed the country, flying by private jet and giving lavish lunches for party regulars. Many Tories, however, were uncomfortable with Mulroney's slick style and free-spending ways. At the convention, he was shoved aside in favor of another candidate, Joe Clark of Alberta.

Casting about for a new challenge, Mulroney joined the Iron Ore Co. of Canada, a subsidiary of the U.S.-owned Hanna Mining Co. His main task was to bring labor peace to the strike-plagued firm and its 7,000 workers. Mulroney succeeded admirably, raising widows' pensions and distributing worker bonuses when the company broke the $100 million mark in earnings. Faced with the U.S. auto recession and declining demand for steel, Mulroney in 1982 shut down a company mine at Schefferville in northeastern Quebec. The closing put 285 miners out of work and turned Schefferville into a ghost town of boarded-up stores and FOR SALE signs.

Though some labor leaders castigated him for the decision, Mulroney avoided heavy political damage by offering handsome severance packages to the workers. In 1983 he again campaigned for the post of party leader, but this time he crisscrossed the country by commercial plane and wooed delegates over coffee. His chief rival for the job: Joe Clark. Having unseated Prime Minister Trudeau and the Liberals in the 1979 elections, Clark was in office only nine months before a parliamentary no-confidence vote brought down his rickety government and returned Trudeau to power. Crippled by his reputation as a has-been, Clark lost the leadership to Mulroney on the fourth ballot at the party convention.

The outcome presented the Tories with a problem: their new party leader did not sit in the House of Commons. A Tory M.P. from Nova Scotia obligingly resigned, and Mulroney ran for the seat in a special by-election. Leaving nothing to chance, the rookie candidate moved his family into a three-bedroom log cabin in the contested district. Swapping his pinstripes for plaid sweaters, Mulroney beat his closest opponent by more than 2 to 1. Perhaps Trudeau, vacationing in Greece at the time, sensed what was to come. Remarked the Liberal leader upon hearing of Mulroney's election: "We will certainly be treating him with respect−and apprehension."