Lentorama 2007: The Non-Canonized Catholic Person of the Day

Today's person is birthday boy Brian Mulroney, who turns 68. A Progressive Conservative from Quebec, Mulroney gained leadership of the party in 1983 and led it to a majority in the Canadian Parliament the following year. The party would have the largest majority in Canadian history, winning 211 seats while no other party won more than 50. Even with this clear mandate, Mulroney had difficulty charting a direction for the country, as he inherited a massive debt. He also made his own trouble with patronage-related gaffes and an inability to quiet Canada's regionalism, a pet issue.

The Tories were returned to office in 1988, but with a smaller majority. During this term in office, things really turned south for him, as he took personal heat for introducing a national sales tax (which replaced a manufacturing tax) and the Bank of Canada's adoption of a zero inflation policy, which exacerbated the effects of an ongoing recession. During this time Mulroney also saw his various attempts to amend the Canadian constitution fail, and his closure of cod fishing grounds made him even more unpopular in the Maritimes.

This unpopularity hurt his party as the 1993 elections approached. The Bloc Quebecois broke off from the PC, and a 1992 poll reported an 11 percent favorability rating for Mulroney. In a position similar to that of Pierre Trudeau, Mulroney decided to retire, leaving Defence Minister Kim Campbell to be Prime Minister for the scant months between Mulroney's final departure from office and the election. Needless to say, she did not find this very helpful, as she had little time to either rally the party or make changes as the head of government.

The 1993 election resulted in the greatest loss of seats for one party in Canadian history, as the PC went from 151 seats to just 2 in Commons. The party would never recover, eventually merging with the Canadian Alliance (formerly the Reform Party) to become the Conservative Party of Canada, which currently is in power in a minority government.

After retirement, Mulroney went back into law and consulting, and was caught up in a scandal regarding payments by Airbus as "commissions" for Air Canada's purchase of Airbus jets. He also survived a bout with lung cancer, and became one of only two former foreign heads of state to eulogize a US President when he did so at the funeral for Ronald Reagan, with whom he had a good working relationship.

Mulroney remains one of the least popular PMs in Canadian history, although he has been noted as one of its most environmentally-friendly PMs.