The Good Quote
Open menu
Quotes
Authors
Topics
More
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
Home
Authors
Brian Mulroney
Canadian
Statesman
About the author
You have to spend your political capital on great causes for your country.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Country
#Causes
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.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Government
#Money
#Environment
You cannot name a Canadian prime minister who has done as many significant things as I did, because there are none.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Name
You can't be chasing 15 rabbits. Otherwise, the public mind cannot follow you.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Public
#Mind
You accumulate political capital to spend it on noble causes for Canada. If you're afraid to spend your capital, you shouldn't be there.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Causes
#Canada
When I appointed the Minister of the Environment to major cabinet status, the Planning and Priorities committee, the signals that that sent through Ottawa were major, because that's what the bureaucracy understands.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Committee
#Environment
#Planning
#Priorities
#Bureaucracy
We created the Cabinet Committee on the Environment to review the environmental implications of all government initiatives. I think what made us successful was the fact that it was a sustained approach. We did something new every year.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Successful
#Committee
#Government
#Fact
#Environmental
Trudeau's contribution was not to build Canada but to destroy it, and I had to come in and save it.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Canada
There are so many demands on your time, on your resources, and on the prestige of the government.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Time
#Government
The Conservatives over the years have done a great deal, from Sir John A, to Diefenbaker, and others.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Years
The biggest trading partner of the United States is not West Germany or Japan, it's right here.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Right
#states
#United
#Germany
So that was Reagan's political problem. As a rancher in California, he was an environmentalist himself. But the President of the United States doesn't control everything that happens in Washington.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#President
#Washington
#Control
#states
#United
Once you articulate an agenda, you have to follow it.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
For example, the Prime Minister earlier this year talked about the importance of the Arctic to our future. He's right. A hundred years from now, the strength of Canada is going to be coming from our resources in the Arctic.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Right
#Now
#Years
#Strength
#Future
#Example
#Importance
#Canada
Whether the process proves to be Kyoto or something else, let's acknowledge the urgency of global warming.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Global warming
It's my responsibility, and entirely my fault, Of course I regret it. It's the kind of locker-room conversation we all use, but as prime minister I shouldn't have used it.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Responsibility
#Conversation
#Regret
#Fault
And, of course, the fact that Maurice Strong, a Canadian, was in charge made it important for us to pull up our socks and become leaders in this field. Now, here is a field we should be a leader in!
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Now
#Leaders
#Fact
#Leader
Every cabinet minister gets a mission statement from the Prime Minister.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Mission
First, President Reagan was not enthusiastic. But I built up a relationship with him in other areas and then persuaded him that this was important to us and to me, and that we had to at least be in the process of looking at this seriously.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#President
#First
I am not denying anything I did not say.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
And look, I was a big, brassy guy who won and won big. I did what I wanted.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
I can see now a vision emerging how Canada is going to profit in the future from our Arctic resources without destroying the environment on which it is all based.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Now
#Vision
#Future
#Environment
#Profit
#Canada
I think the government has to reposition environment on top of their national and international priorities.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Government
#Environment
#Priorities
I would go to them and I would explain this is the price of going forward. We're going to move ahead in all these other areas. We're moving ahead in tax reform and GST, we are moving ahead on trade, but this will not be done at the cost of the environment.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Will
#Tax
#Reform
#Trade
#Environment
If everything is very important, then nothing is important.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Nothing
If your only objective is to be popular, you're going to be popular but you will be known as the Prime Minister who achieved nothing.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Will
#Nothing
#Popular
In politics, madame, you need two things: friends, but above all an enemy.
Brian Mulroney,
Canadian
Statesman
#Enemy
#Friends
#Politics