Politics & Power Quote by Brian Mulroney

Political capital is the one currency in public life that only depreciates with time, and Mulroney’s line is a blunt reminder not to hoard it like a balanced budget. The phrasing is transactional on purpose: it treats popularity, leverage, and goodwill as finite resources, useful only when converted into policy that actually leaves a mark. “Spend” implies risk and loss; “great causes” implies a hierarchy of priorities that can’t be satisfied by managerial tinkering or permanent campaigning.

The subtext is a critique of small-ball politics. Mulroney is suggesting that leaders who obsess over day-to-day optics end up with immaculate approval curves and empty legacies. It’s also self-justifying in the way seasoned statesmen often are. Mulroney’s own tenure is remembered less for careful incrementalism than for high-stakes bets: free trade, constitutional battles, and contentious national reforms that demanded he burn through trust across regions and factions. The quote reads like a post-game philosophy from someone who learned that caution can be its own form of vanity.

“Great causes for your country” does a lot of rhetorical work. It wraps political pain in patriotism, reframing unpopular moves as acts of national stewardship rather than partisan ambition. It also quietly warns against spending capital on ego projects, tactical point-scoring, or short-lived moral panics. Mulroney’s intent isn’t sentimental; it’s consequentialist. If the job inevitably spends you down, he argues, you may as well cash out on decisions that outlast you.