"The Conservatives over the years have done a great deal, from Sir John A, to Diefenbaker, and others"
About this Quote
Mulroney’s line is doing the small but essential work of conservative nation-building: stitching his party to a usable past. By invoking “Sir John A” (Macdonald) and Diefenbaker in the same breath, he’s not offering a history lesson so much as a lineage claim. The shorthand is deliberate. “Sir John A” signals founding power and Confederation-scale ambition; “Diefenbaker” conjures prairie populism, civil liberties rhetoric, and a more democratic, big-tent Conservatism. Mulroney is trying to inherit both: establishment legitimacy and outsider empathy.
The phrasing is carefully noncommittal - “a great deal,” “over the years,” “and others.” That vagueness is the point. It smooths over the messy record that comes with any long-governing tradition: patronage, regional fractures, and the periodic Canadian discomfort with nationalism when it looks too triumphal. He’s offering Conservatives a pride script that doesn’t force them into specifics that could invite counterarguments.
Contextually, Mulroney governed during a period when Canadian Conservatism needed moral ballast: free trade, constitutional crises, and regional alienation made the party’s “project” feel contested, even brittle. This kind of statement reassures supporters that they’re not merely a faction reacting to Liberals; they’re heirs to statecraft. The subtext is defensive but confident: Conservatives belong at the center because they helped build the center.
The phrasing is carefully noncommittal - “a great deal,” “over the years,” “and others.” That vagueness is the point. It smooths over the messy record that comes with any long-governing tradition: patronage, regional fractures, and the periodic Canadian discomfort with nationalism when it looks too triumphal. He’s offering Conservatives a pride script that doesn’t force them into specifics that could invite counterarguments.
Contextually, Mulroney governed during a period when Canadian Conservatism needed moral ballast: free trade, constitutional crises, and regional alienation made the party’s “project” feel contested, even brittle. This kind of statement reassures supporters that they’re not merely a faction reacting to Liberals; they’re heirs to statecraft. The subtext is defensive but confident: Conservatives belong at the center because they helped build the center.
Quote Details
| Topic | Legacy & Remembrance |
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