On Sept. 17, 1984, Brian Mulroney was sworn in as Canada’s 18th prime minister, 13 days after leading the Progressive Conservatives to the largest majority government in Canadian history.
The election itself, held Sept. 4, had not been close. The Progressive Conservatives won 211 of 282 seats, taking roughly 50 per cent of the national vote against 28 per cent for the Liberals and 19 per cent for the NDP. It broke the record for the largest majority in the House of Commons, previously held by John Diefenbaker’s 1958 sweep. The Tories won at least one seat in every province and territory, a result no party had managed before and none has managed since. In Quebec, traditionally hostile territory for the federal Tories, Mulroney’s PCs took 58 of 75 seats.
Mulroney, then 45, succeeded John Turner, who had been prime minister for less than three months. Turner inherited the office from Pierre Trudeau in June 1984, called the election almost immediately, and lost it decisively — a debate performance in which Mulroney accused him of having “an option, sir” to refuse a list of Trudeau-era patronage appointments is widely credited with sealing the outcome.
The oath of office on Sept. 17 was administered by Governor General Jeanne Sauvé, who had herself been sworn in only four months earlier, on May 14, 1984, as the first woman to hold the office. Mulroney’s cabinet, sworn in the same day, is commonly cited as the largest in Canadian history to that point, with roughly 40 ministers — a reflection of the scale of the new government’s caucus and the regional balancing a majority that size required.
Mulroney would go on to serve just over eight years, winning a second majority in 1988 largely on the strength of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, before resigning in 1993 with his party’s popularity badly eroded. He remains, by seat count, the most decisively elected prime minister in the country’s history.
Featured image: the Peace Tower and Parliament Hill, Ottawa, shown as an illustration of the federal government rather than the 1984 ceremony itself. Photo via Unsplash.
