Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney to release "Memoirs: 1939-1993"

September 8, 2007

On Sunday Memoirs: 1939-1993 a memoir written by former Prime Minister of Canada Brian Mulroney will be released. The 1,152 page tome outlines Mulroney's version of events during his time as prime minister.

CTV will broadcast a documentary on Brian Mulroney on the eve of his book launch. In addition, the network plans to air Triumph & Treachery: The Brian Mulroney Story on Sunday, CTV says the 90-minute special will be the most complete interview the former prime minister has ever given and his first comprehensive interview since leaving office in 1993.The Quebec French language TVA network will air a similar documentary exclusively in French later that night.

Mulroney allocates a fair amount of text commenting on his antogonist the late and former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau. Mulroney believes that Trudeau lacked the moral fibre to be Prime Minister for not serving in the Canadian Forces during World War II.

Mulroney insinuates that the young Trudeau had anti-Semitic beliefs at that time, "This is a man who questioned the Allies when the Jews were being sacrificed and when the great extermination program was on, he was marching around Outremont, Quebec on the other side of the issue."

Mulroney also blames Trudeau for scuttling the Meech Lake Accord, the 1990 pact aimed at securing Quebec's signature on the Constitution of Canada.

The current Prime Minister Stephen Harper supported Mulroney's right to comment on Trudeau, "I think it's well known Mr. Mulroney was an opponent of Mr. Trudeau," Harper said. "He was his opposition leader and, as you know, came to power at the end of the Trudeau period when people wanted to make a change. I'll leave it to people who were there then to fight those battles. I think it's perfectly reasonable that they would comment. I think these are debates that are best left to some of the people who were around then and academics."

Trudeau's former piers and friends have rallied behind his legacy and made public comments to dampen Mulroney's accusations.

Stephane Dion responded to Mulroney critiques with a five paragraph statement posted on the Liberal Party website, "It is regrettable that, after attending prime minister Trudeau’s state funeral and praising him as 'an exceptional individual who served his country effectively and well … a gallant political warrior who loved his country,' Mr. Mulroney would seem to be at such odds with his own views."

Tom Axworthy's, response to Mulroney was that Trudeau should be judged by his actions once his values matured and he entered public life, not by "ridiculous" thoughts he entertained briefly in his teens and early twenties.

John R. English stated, Trudeau's youthful views must be put in the context of the times, when most Quebecers were so virulently anti-British and opposed to what they saw as a British war that they were blinded to the evils of Hitler's Nazism.

Official homepage

 * Memoirs: 1939-1993 Official homepage

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