In other words, have Mulroney be the brief serving Prime Minister and the footnote in history, and have Joe Clark be the long serving Prime Minister who greatly impacted Canada, for better or for worse.
IMO I think Meech would still have failed under Clark, so we still see the rise of the Bloc.Clark decides that 66% is indeed enough, and with the Liberals getting it on both sides of the face from the NEP and the Night Of The Long Knives, the Tories win in '84, sweeping both the west and Quebec, the latter by Clark promising, as OTL Mulroney, to find a dignified way to get Quebec into the constitional fold, under his "community of communities" concept.
Clark probably has enough brains not to shaft Manitoba on the CF-18 contract, possibly thwarting the rise of Reform, but still manages to frame the '88 election as a referendum on free trade, thus keeping both the west and Quebec on side. Not sure what happens to this time-line's equivalent of Meech and Charlottetown. If Clark bombs on the constitutional front, you might still see the rise of a BQ-style outfit.
IMO I think Meech would still have failed under Clark, so we still see the rise of the Bloc.
As for Mulroney, I think the best way for it to happen in your scenario would be for Clark to resign in early 1993 as OTL Mulroney did and for TTL Mulroney to then fill the role of Kim Campbell.
It would have been closer I think, but I think the Federalists would still have taken it pretty easily. Clark's idea of Federalism was very much popular in Quebec, and even if he's out of office, I have to imagine Trudeau would campaign very very vigorously against Sovereignty.Yeah, quite possibly. Canadians really did seem recalcitrant about excepting any sort of constitutional reform at that particular time.
And I've sometimes wondered how the 1980 referendum would have gone down had the Albertan Clark rather than the Quebecker Trudeau had been PM. It's hard to imagine Clark going into Quebec and mounting an effective opposition the way PET did.
It would have been closer I think, but I think the Federalists would still have taken it pretty easily. Clark's idea of Federalism was very much popular in Quebec, and even if he's out of office, I have to imagine Trudeau would campaign very very vigorously against Sovereignty.
I can't tell how serious this is meant to be.I remember a PC leadership debate, in French, and most of the candidates were glaringly obviously Anglos who'd had a quicky French course. Then Joe Clark spoke, and while obviously Anglo, was competent, and hearing him wasn't painful. Then Brian Mulroney spoke, and, oh, the balm on sore ears that was. Impeccable accent and cadence, and that gorgeous mellifluous voice!
So, to swap the two, you'd need to have Joe born in Quebec, and Brian in the west.![]()
Does Mulroney need to be PM before Clark? It's not hard to imagine Clark governing through the 80s, then passing the reins to Mulroney, who swiftly goes down in defeat.