The tape recorder is always on, no matter what

The problem with not living in Canada anymore is that I’m hopelessly out of the loop on what’s happening in my country — CBC lockouts? Government scandals? Igloos? It’s all a big blur.

But it’s hard not to miss out on this story, featuring two of the most important and controversial figures. In one corner, we have Brian Mulroney, former prime minister and currently recovering from a nasty bout of pancreatitis. In another we have Peter C. Newman, who seems to be on a quest to turn every major Canadian figure into a biography-slash-polemic (his last targets: Conrad Black and his lovely viper wife Barbara Amiel.)

They were once friends, chatting over drinks and shooting the shit. Mulroney made some comments, ranted about some people. All off the record, right?

Um, no:

He is not challenging the accuracy of Newman’s book, The Secret Mulroney Tapes, and has no plans for legal action.

But Lavoie said the former prime minister is feeling betrayed by the way his old friend, Newman, gathered the material.

That material includes a series of remarks from the 1980s and ’90s that would have produced incendiary and potentially career-ending headlines at the time.

They include references to the anatomy and the love life of his successor, Kim Campbell, startling admissions about the Meech Lake accord, vicious outbursts at the media and anyone else he felt had deprived him of his legacy as the country’s greatest prime minister since John A. Macdonald.

He unloads with particular force on former Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau, former colleagues Lucien Bouchard and Joe Clark, on Clark’s wife Maureen McTeer, and on ex-Newfoundland premier Clyde Wells.

But it was just supposed to be two old friends chatting, says Lavoie.

“Brian Mulroney is a very colourful, entertaining man in a conversation that says things that are said because they’re entertaining,” Lavoie said.

“For a man like this to tape him without his knowledge and use it this way is nothing short of betrayal.”

An excerpt of the book, as well as audio clips from the tapes, can be found here. And as to how it affects Mulroney’s legacy, well hell, he’s already caused enough divisiveness, why not add some more?