"We decided that the environment was an integral part of our policies and the political thrust of our government. We gave it the priority and we sustained it with the money required to make it happen"
About this Quote
Mulroney is trying to do two things at once: claim moral clarity and preempt the cynical read that “environment” is just a ribbon you tie around a platform when the cameras are on. The sentence is built like a checklist of seriousness. “Integral” insists this wasn’t a boutique file delegated to a junior minister. “Political thrust” signals something even more revealing: environmental policy wasn’t framed as a sacrifice politics must endure, but as a driver of power, legitimacy, and agenda-setting. He’s telling you it wasn’t an add-on to economic governance; it was part of how the government justified itself.
The subtext sits in the second line, where the rhetoric hardens into a ledger. “We gave it the priority” is the values claim; “we sustained it with the money required” is the proof-of-work. Mulroney knows the public has learned to distrust eco-virtue that evaporates at budget time. Funding becomes the credibility test, the difference between symbolism and state capacity. The repetition of “we” is also strategic: it spreads ownership across a cabinet and a governing coalition, insulating the claim from the idea of one leader’s hobbyhorse.
Context matters because Mulroney governed during the late Cold War and early globalization years, when environmental issues like acid rain and ozone depletion were becoming international bargaining chips and domestic political flashpoints. In that era, making the environment “integral” wasn’t cost-free; it meant confronting industry, provinces, and cross-border diplomacy. The quote is less a sentimental appeal than a retrospective argument about governing competence: priorities are real only when they survive the budget and the backlash.
The subtext sits in the second line, where the rhetoric hardens into a ledger. “We gave it the priority” is the values claim; “we sustained it with the money required” is the proof-of-work. Mulroney knows the public has learned to distrust eco-virtue that evaporates at budget time. Funding becomes the credibility test, the difference between symbolism and state capacity. The repetition of “we” is also strategic: it spreads ownership across a cabinet and a governing coalition, insulating the claim from the idea of one leader’s hobbyhorse.
Context matters because Mulroney governed during the late Cold War and early globalization years, when environmental issues like acid rain and ozone depletion were becoming international bargaining chips and domestic political flashpoints. In that era, making the environment “integral” wasn’t cost-free; it meant confronting industry, provinces, and cross-border diplomacy. The quote is less a sentimental appeal than a retrospective argument about governing competence: priorities are real only when they survive the budget and the backlash.
Quote Details
| Topic | Vision & Strategy |
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