>>FEATURE
THE SECRET MULRONEY TAPES
Peter C. Newman
Random House, 462 pp.
Peter C. Newman is getting frustrated that every interview he does for his new book, The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister, ends up focusing on whether or not he betrayed his one-time friend, former prime minister Brian Mulroney, in order to write a juicy bestseller.
"Whether (the journalists) like it or not isn’t important, but write about my book," he says. "Don’t write about this stuff, because I’ve gone through it so many times."
Shortly after the book was released in September, The Globe and Mail reported that Mulroney felt "betrayed" and "devastated" by it, despite the fact that Newman says they had an agreement that Newman would write a biography about him after he retired as prime minister. Mulroney also agreed to furnish Newman with any documents he needed to write the biography, but then reneged on the agreement because he wanted to write his own autobiography. So Newman was essentially stuck with 1.8 million words that he had recorded in 98 interviews with Mulroney, ranging from before he was prime minister until after he retired. Newman could no longer write the biography he’d planned, but he still wanted to use the material he’d collected.
Newman’s book is a fascinating read because it’s essentially Mulroney unplugged. Somehow, this seasoned politician never felt the need to censor himself when speaking to one of Canada’s foremost political journalists, and so instead of a dry political tome, we get an intimate perspective on Mulroney’s reign. And although he may be Canada’s most hated prime minister, he’s certainly not a boring conversationalist. He slings dirt on various fellow politicians and associates, and displays some astounding megalomania, but he also offers interesting insights into Canadian politics.
We learn that Mulroney believed he was the best prime minister Canada has ever had, with the possible exception of Sir John A. Macdonald. He also despised the media and felt he never got any fair coverage. The book offers his takes on the failed Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords and the North American Free Trade Agreement – topics that are interesting to revisit in 2005. On a personal level, it’s fascinating to hear Mulroney’s comments on his nemesis, Pierre Trudeau, and to read how he felt cruelly betrayed when his former friend Lucien Bouchard defected from the Progressive Conservatives and took over the leadership of the Bloc Québécois.
Newman, who acknowledges he was once "very close friends" with Mulroney, says the book was never intended as an attack, but as an honest portrayal of the man.
"It’s difficult not to like him. Think if you had the choice to interview Chrétien or Martin or Mulroney – and I might add Trudeau to that, because Trudeau was a lousy interview. I mean, I interviewed him lots of times and he had this Jesuit thing – you ask him questions and he asks you questions back, and you never got anything out of him. He was charming and he was exciting and all that, but as an interview it was a bust."
That’s not the case with Mulroney, he says. "Mulroney has that Irish blarney and he’s full of stories, he’s full of insightful comments. I agree with 90 per cent of what he says," he adds. "I got to the real guy, and it was fun, I have to tell you."
Newman believes there are bigger things to worry about than whether he took advantage of Mulroney’s candid conversations. Having chronicled Canadian politics for more than four decades, he says he’s extremely concerned about growing apathy and disillusion.
"Democracy is very fragile, and we can rant about our politicians and we should, but at some point disillusionment becomes so bad that people stop believing in the system, and that really scares me," he says. "There are only 28 real democracies left in the world and we are one of them, and that’s gotta survive. I worry, not about what happens to parties and leaders, but what happens to the democratic system. I’m really concerned, because if we turn off enough people, you don’t have a democracy. People say, ‘To hell with it, I’m not going to vote, I’m not going to do anything.’ And we’re fairly close to that." |
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