Get over yourself, Kim

Kim Campbell, who oversaw the second-most* humiliating defeat in Canadian political history, is whining about Brian Mulroney's criticism in the much-talked-about new book by Peter C. Newman:

Former prime minister Kim Campbell delivered a blistering response last night to the profanity-laced criticisms of her from her predecessor, Brian Mulroney, in a new book by author Peter C. Newman.

Mulroney, in Newman's book The Secret Mulroney Tapes, said Campbell was a "goddamned vain" and selfish woman who spoke "awful" French and blew the 1993 election.

Mulroney criticized Campbell for wasting time socializing with her then-boyfriend during the 1993 campaign in which the Progressive Conservative Party won just two seats.

Campbell, who now teaches at Harvard University in Boston, responded publicly on the condition it was clear she was responding to the Vancouver Sun's request for comment. She also insisted that her response below be printed in full.

"In 1993, Brian Mulroney was the most unpopular prime minister in the history of Canadian polling and the Progressive Conservative Party was at historically low levels of support," she wrote in an email.

"The question that begs asking is why he then gave me, as his successor, only 21/2 months to turn the party fortunes around before an election had to be called."
[...]
"What Brian Mulroney wanted in 1993 was not a successor who could actually have a chance to govern, but a scapegoat who would bear the electoral burden of his unpopularity, and allow him to retire 'undefeated' into the historical pantheon of which he is convinced he is a member."

Here's the thing, Professor Campbell. I have no idea whether the boyfriend stuff is true, but I do know this much:

1. Nobody forced you to take over the "impossible" job of leading the PC Party of Canada in 1993. Jean Charest was more than willing to take it - as were Jim Edwards, Garth Turner and Patrick Boyer, come to think of it. If the election was truly unwinnable, you should have noticed it, being a cabinet minister and all.

2. I remember that campaign. I worked on that campaign for Loyola Hearn and Ross Reid in St. John's. And I remember the Tories' poll numbers being very, very good - about even with the Liberals - when the election was called. I thought we had a shot at winning, albeit with a reduced majority. And then you screwed it up. Your debate performance and TV commercials ("It's time") were among the worst in Canadian history, and that was before the ad which allegedly made fun of Jean Chretien's facial deformity. The Liberals had a TV spot ready showing you hugging Mulroney, but in the end they didn't even need it.

Even if we take Campbell at her word and agree that there was no way the PCs could have won in 1993, she was the difference between 2 seats and, say, 60.

*the worst defeat in Canadian political history was in the 1987 New Brunswick provincial election, when Richard Hatfield and the Tories were swept from office. And I mean swept - the Liberals won all 58 seats.

Posted by damian at September 13, 2005 04:58 PM | TrackBack