Mulroney Government: Canadian Business and Reagan Administration

mulroney government: The last great fight of Macdonald's life had been to sustain the National Policy and to block the Liberal Party's drive for a renewal of reciprocity or commercial union with the United States, according to Rabble. The 1988 federal election campaign pitted multinational and Canadian business on one side against trade unions, social movements and much of Canadian civil society on the other. It is ironic that the party's final electoral victory was in aid of the implementation of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement that had been negotiated between the Mulroney government and the Reagan Administration. The Liberals and the NDP declared that, if elected, they would tear up the FTA; the Conservatives committed themselves to implementing the free trade deal if they were returned to office. Under the nation's first-past-the-post electoral system, however, the Conservatives won a majority of seats in the House of Commons and the Canada-U.S. FTA came into effect on January 1, 1989. In the election, between them, the Liberals and the NDP won 53 per cent of the votes cast by Canadians, while the Conservatives won 43 per cent of the popular vote. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.