Brian Mulroney was one of six children born to Ben and Mary Mulroney in the mill town of Baie Comeau on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec.
Mulroney attended Saint Francis Xavier University where he was first introduced to politics and became active in the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia, working on the 1956 election that saw Bob Stanfield become premier of the province.
He completed his law degree at Laval and landed his first job at the firm of Ogilvy Renault in Montreal where he distinguished himself as a skillful labour relations lawyer. After a failed attempt at the party leadership in 1976, he took a position as executive vice-president of the Iron Ore Company of Canada. Seven years later, Mulroney ran again for the leadership, winning on the fourth ballot. In 1984 he became Prime Minister with the largest majority in Canadian history.
Despite some embarrassing scandals and the failure of constitutional reconciliation with Meech Lake and Charlottetown, Mulroney's legacy remains distinctive: free trade and an acid rain accords with the United States, environmental assessment and protection legislation, and spearheading international efforts to end apartheid in South Africa.
Following his resignation in 1993, Mulroney took work as a business consultant and is now a partner with his old law firm, Ogilvy Renault, now known as Norton Rose. Catherine Clark spoke to Mulroney about his life Beyond Politics.