Word: agreement
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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With Canada's balloting set for Nov. 21, last Tuesday's impassioned exchange between John and Brian in an Ottawa television studio easily bested anything between George and Michael. The key issue during the emotionally charged three-hour debate was the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement signed by Mulroney and Ronald Reagan in January and passed by the U.S. Congress. The agreement, which has yet to be approved by the Canadian Senate, has propelled to the surface profound and often submerged anxieties over Canada's self-image and its relationship with its neighbor to the south...
Turner, 59, the man who lost the Prime Minister's office to Mulroney in 1984, was drawing blood. In trying to defend the agreement, Mulroney only aggravated his wound. "Mr. Turner, the document is cancelable on six months' notice. Be serious. Be serious...
...statement was literally true. But in pointing out how easily Canada could escape from the pact, Mulroney made a clear misstep. Throughout the campaign, the 50-year-old Prime Minister had cast the agreement as essential to his country's prosperity, and it was instantly apparent to the viewers that the pact could not be vital and disposable at the same time. The exchange crystallized a nag of doubts about the pact and about Mulroney himself...
...loss -- namely, national sovereignty. Canadians have long been worried that free trade would mean a kind of integration with America's economy that would wrest self-determination from Canadian industry. As far back as 1911, the government of Liberal Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier fell over a free-trade agreement -- an episode that gave birth to the slogan "No truck nor trade with the Yankees...
...consecutive term. A Gallup poll estimated that the Tories would claim roughly 40% of the vote -- enough to win 193 of the House's 295 seats -- with the New Democrats running at 29%, and Liberals at 28%. But Gallup also reported that 42% of Canadians oppose the free-trade agreement, 34% support it, and almost a quarter of the country is undecided. After the debate, the respected Angus Reid poll found the race had been transformed into a dead heat, with Liberals and Conservatives tied at 35%. Opposition to the trade pact soared...