Former prime minister Brian Mulroney is recovering from prostate cancer, family says
OTTAWA - Former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney is doing well" after undergoing treatment last fall for prostate cancer, the Star has learned.
Mulroney, 84, expects to be back in full swing in a few weeks," his son Mark said in an interview Wednesday.
He went through a really tough treatment," Mulroney said of his father's condition in November and December, but added a lot of people have been relieved" to learn the former prime minister is doing much better now.
Mulroney, a lawyer and businessman, was Canada's 18th prime minister from 1984 to 1993. He led the federal Progressive Conservative party to back-to-back majority governments, the first Conservative leader in 100 years to do so.
His daughter Caroline is an Ontario MPP who currently serves as the Ford government's minister of transportation and Francophone affairs. She is the only of his four children - the others are Mark, Ben and Nicholas - to enter electoral politics.
Mulroney underwent cancer treatment last fall in Montreal, where he and his wife Mila live. He declined an interview request Wednesday.
Prostate cancer is the fourth most common cancer in Canada, and the number one cancer in men, according to Statistics Canada, with one in nine men likely to be diagnosed with it in their lifetime. Most cases, 99 per cent, occur in men aged 50 and over.
Regan Watts, a family friend, described the former prime minister as a fighter" who is well on the mend.
Mulroney was last publicly seen in Ottawa in September, when he attended a national memorial service at Christ Church Cathedral and delivered a tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth.
At the time, he also sat down for dinner with the current leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Pierre Poilievre, at Stornoway, the Official Opposition leader's residence.
Poilievre reportedly sought Mulroney's advice on winning a majority government, and was advised to seek votes in the political centre, formulate a solid environmental and international policy, and be able to articulate a vision for Canada, according to the Globe and Mail.
Mulroney is a senior partner in the law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, and has served on a number of boards of directors since leaving politics.
His record in office includes negotiating the first Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and later the North American Free Trade Agreement, signing the 1991 acid rain treaty with the U.S. and championing sanctions against the South African regime in a push to eliminate apartheid.
Mulroney's government also undertook tax reform, creating the Goods and Services Tax to replace a hidden manufacturing tax - a measure the Liberals vowed to kill, but which every successive government has kept (although Stephen Harper's Conservative government later reduced it by two percentage points).
However, his attempts at constitutional reform through the Meech Lake accord and the Charlottetown Agreement faltered.
Tonda MacCharles is Ottawa Bureau Chief and a senior reporter covering federal politics. Follow her on Twitter: @tondamacc