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Brian Mulroney, Canada\u2019s 18th prime minister, whose statesmanship on what he called \u201cgreat causes,\u201d from free trade and acid rain in North America to the overthrow of apartheid in South Africa, gave way to accusations of financial misdoing and influence-peddling after he left office, died on Thursday in Palm Beach, Fla. He was 84.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for his daughter Caroline Mulroney, a cabinet minister in Ontario\u2019s Progressive Conservative government, said Mr. Mulroney died in a hospital after a fall at his home in Palm Beach. \u201cHe died peacefully, surrounded by family,\u201d Ms. Mulroney wrote on X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n
Born into a blue-collar family in northeastern Quebec, Mr. Mulroney transcended his small-town roots to become a prosperous lawyer and business executive before seeking and attaining high office as a conservative, rising to prime minister in 1984. He won re-election by a convincing margin in 1988.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
His popularity had much to do with his persona: With a liking for immaculately tailored dark blue double-breasted suits and always impeccably coifed, Mr. Mulroney was a skilled debater and orator and always ready with a crowd-pleasing joke to preface his speeches.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Ingrid Saumart, writing in the Montreal newspaper La Presse, once called him \u201cdynamic, bilingual and seductive.\u201d Aides promoted him as the Canadian version of Ronald Reagan.<\/p>\n
But haunted by a faltering economy and high unemployment, and saying that he had lost enthusiasm for the job, he stepped down in 1993 with the worst Canadian poll ratings of the 20th century. He handed power over to Kim Campbell, who became Canada\u2019s first female prime minister but lost a disastrous election months later.<\/p>\n
Mr. Mulroney was known as the Canadian leader who led the country into the North American Free Trade Agreement, with the United States and Mexico, a pact signed in December 1992, and as the author of an overhaul of Canada\u2019s tax regime.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
He prided himself on being a confidant of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush; on promoting a thaw between Moscow and Washington in the closing days of the Cold War; and on going much further than either the United States or Britain in imposing sanctions against white-ruled South Africa to press for the release of Nelson Mandela and the dismantling of apartheid.<\/p>\n