November
22, 1988, Tuesday, HOME EDITION; NEWS; Pg. 5
By Al Gordon. Newsday Staff Correspondent
TORONTO – Canadian Prime
Minister Brian Mulroney was returned to power with unexpected ease yesterday in
a vote that should ensure the approval of a landmark treaty establishing closer
economic links between Canada and the United States.
According to results compiled by
the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative Party won
44 percent of the popular vote, with returns in from most sections of Canada,
and had won or was leading in races for 170 of the 295 seats in the House of
Commons - comfortably more than the 148 needed for a majority.
Opposition leader John Turner’s
Liberal Party picked up 35 percent of the vote while the third-place New
Democratic Party, led by Ed Broadbent, had about 18 percent. The rest of the
vote went to minor parties, none of which had won seats as of early this
morning. CBC said the Liberals had won or were leading in contests for 84 seats
while the NDP was picking up 41.
Before cheering supporters in his
home district in Baie Comeau, Quebec, Mulroney said the election results were a
“mandate” for the free-trade accord. Canadian voters had decided the pact
would mean “greater harmony and prosperity” for the nation. At the same
time, he called for national unity, saying, “This is now a time for healing in
the land.”
Mulroney’s victory became
apparent early in the evening after the Conservatives extended their 1984
majorities in Quebec and held the Liberals to only narrow gains in Ontario. The
Conservatives won strongly in almost every region of the nation except for the
Maritime Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Prince Edward
Island.
The election campaign, which
political analysts said had stirred Canadian passions more than any contest in
years, had turned into a referendum not just on the U.S.-Canada free-trade pact,
but on how close a relationship Canadians wanted with their neighbors.
Turner led the fight against the
pact, and for a time had staged a remarkable comeback from an expected landslide
defeat. But divisions in his party and his low personal popularity - both
skillfully attacked by the Conservatives - resulted in a swing back to the
Tories in the campaign’s final week.
Only 10 days ago, opinion polls
put Mulroney and Turner in a dead heat. As of early this morning, Canadian
television network tallies put Mulroney ahead by 9 points in the popular vote.
Mulroney pledged during the
campaign that if given a continued majority, he would immediately call
Parliament back into session - experts say that would be in mid-December - so
the trade measure can be adopted prior to its scheduled Jan. 1 start date.
The U.S. Congress already has
approved the pact, and President Ronald Reagan has signed the implementing
legislation.
The only bright news for the
opposition was that the Conservative vote was down sharply from the nearly 50
percent it won four years ago, when Mulroney scored a landslide victory, again
over Turner and Broadbent. The Tories’ strength in the House of Commons will
be reduced by about 30 seats.
The Liberals’ share of the
popular vote was up about 7 points and the party more than doubled its 38 seats
in the House. The NDP share of the vote was down slightly from 1984 but the
party has increased its 32-seat share in the old Parliament by nine seats to a
historic high.
Canadian analysts say the election
may well mark the end of the road politically for both Turner, now a two-time
loser who has many critics in his party, and Broadbent, whose party steadily
lost ground during the campaign.
The accord was signed by Mulroney
and Reagan in January but the deal stalled in the Canadian Parliament despite
the Conservatives’ overwhelming majority in the House of Commons because the
Liberals blocked the measure in the Senate, which they control, in order to
force Mulroney to call the election.
Over a 10-year period the
agreement would remove the remaining tariffs in bilateral trade, and would allow
financial and other service companies in the two nations largely unrestricted
access to each other’s markets. Eighty percent of the more than $ 135 billion
in goods traded between the two country’s last year was duty-free.
Critics have warned that free
trade would mean that Canadian society would fall irrevocably under U.S.
interest, at the expense of Canadian social values and social programs.
Mulroney, 49, has called the pact
one of the prime accomplishments of his 4-year-old government. The agreement, he
said, means “more jobs and more wealth” for Canada and is “an insurance
policy” against the rising tide of protectionism in Washington.
But rather than assuring Mulroney
victory, the free-trade wound up putting his re-election in jeopardy.
Turner, who fought the treaty in
Parliament, built his campaign around his opposition. The 59-year-old former
prime minister, who had been ousted by a Mulroney landslide in 1984, was given
little hope of success because of his personal unpopularity and because of
divisions in Liberal ranks.
But in a televised debate late
last month, Turner dramatically altered the complexion of the contest, saying to
Mulroney: “You’ve sold us out.” Turner’s argument that the treaty could
reduce Canada to being “a colony of the United States” apparently struck a
responsive cord with the electorate.
The Liberals soared in the polls,
with Turner for a time moving into a lead. His surge derailed the Mulroney
strategy of downplaying the trade pact in favor of his government’s overall
record on the economy. The contest became a one-issue campaign, and one of the
most intense in Canadian history.
The NDP, which had hoped to
displace the Liberals as the leading opposition party, failed to recognize the
shift in focus and has faded as the campaign has gone along.
Negative campaigning - milder than
in the recent American election but heavy stuff for a Canadian vote - punctuated
the contest. Canadian political scientists pointed out, however, that the
attacks were focused around an issue that had stirred national passions, in
contrast to what they saw as artificial issues manufactured for the U.S.
campaign. Candidates have been heckled and partisans have their noses bloodied
at political rallies.
Late polls showed the Tories
reclaiming the lead, possibly the result of a media blitz intended to undermine
Turner’s credibility by charging he was only opposing the treaty to save
himself politically. The Liberals over the weekend hit back with their own final
blitz, among other things showing Mulroney saluting the American flag.
The key to the election was
Quebec, normally a Liberal stronghold but leaning to the Conservatives. Mulroney
has “favorite son” support there, but more important, French-speaking
Canada, with its distinctive culture, is not as worried as the English-speaking
regions about being submerged by the United States.
Copyright 1988, Newsday Inc.