from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and the Goods and Services Tax
, and the rejection of constitutional reforms such as the Meech Lake Accord
and the Charlottetown Accord
.
"You had an option, sir. You could have said, 'I am not going to do it. This is wrong for Canada, and I am not going to ask Canadians to pay the price.' You had an option, sir--to say 'no'--and you chose to say 'yes' to the old attitudes and the old stories of the Liberal Party. That sir, if I may say respectfully, that is not good enough for Canadians."
"Popularity's bad for you. I avoid it like the plague.
"Peter Newman: Go fuck yourself. Thank you. Good night."
(On one of his cabinet ministers) "Slit her throat."
"I look around this room and see a room full of senators, maybe one or two judges. A Conservative government will give jobs to people in other parties only after I've been prime minister for fifteen years and can't find a single living, breathing Tory to appoint." (1983), p.94
"It's pretty hard to tell somebody who won 211 seats the first time out, having started way behind, and then 169 the next time out, that he can't do it a third time against Jean Chrétien|Jean Chrétien, Preston Manning|Preston Manning and Audrey McLaughlin|Audrey McLaughlin. Give me a break.", p.159
"Go bang the window and see what happens -- just go test it. See that? Trudeau had the office bulletproofed. I always contended that the reason he did it was because the American embassy is right outside. They probably wanted to shoot him.", p.331
"All this nonsense going on, the guy [Jean Chrétien] just swallows himself whole on NAFTA, nobody says a word. It's just been an awful bloody piece of business. Only a mean, dirty bastard would do something like that, or a fucking stupid one. And you know what? He's both.", p.360-361