Thirty-seven years ago, inside a television studio in Ottawa, John Turner thrust an index finger at Brian Mulroney and warned that with one stroke of a pen Mulroney had reversed 120 years of national development and thrown Canada into the “north-south influence of the United States.”
“When the economic levers go, the political independence is sure to follow,” Turner said.
Turner lost both the election and the larger debate — the free-trade deal between Canada and the United States went ahead and came into effect two months later. But that exchange — possibly the most dramatic in the 60-year history of televised leaders’ debates in Canada — is still replayed on television at election time. And Turner’s warning now could be said to hang over the 2025 campaign.
In truth, a televised debate is not well-suited to settling big questions of national purpose and direction.
In 1988, the three leaders — John …