WI Mulroney Loses 1983 PC Leadership Bid

[John Fredrick Parker]

A question for Canadians (or Canadian experts) on the board - with the latest possible POD (and none prior to the calling of the contest in January of that year), how could somebody other than Brian Mulroney have won the 1983 Progressive Conservative Leadership Election? And depending on if Joe Clark holds the leadership or one of the other challengers gets it, how is the 1984 Election affected, assuming Trudeau still has his walk in the snow? And where do Canada's politics go from there?

 

[RichmondHistory]

I'd really like to see someone's take on another Joe Clark Premiership or perhaps a more sucessful premiership from 1979 in the first place. I think the East vs West tensions in Canada could have cooled down if Joe Clark got to implement what seemed like an agenda to devolve power in influences to the provinces, especially the western ones. Trudeau was a hardline federalist and did not want to give an inch to any provinces like Alberta or Quebec. I think that caused and worsened a lot of tensions in these areas. Perhaps Mulroney meant to reconcile it all but something went wrong along the way and that led to the Reform Party and Bloc Quebecois. Fast foward to 2020 and we have Alberta struggling with their oil situation and cultural differences and talking about "Wexit". It seems like Quebec Sovereignty may be gaining steam again too, with the Bloc Quebecois and Coalition Avenir Quebec doing well or winning recently. I don't know exactly how the average Quebecer feels about the federal goverment and their place in Confederation nowadays but according to the election results something is developing.

My point is that I think a lot of this could have been resolved more smoothly if Joe Clark had a better run as PM or got another shot in 1984 as leader.
I hope it's okay to plug my own post. I think it's of interest and I'd love to see other's takes on it.

WI Joe Clark remained PM of Canada after 1979-1980?

In the 1979 election in Canada, Joe Clark and the Progressive Conservatives narrowly beat Pierre Trudeau of the Liberal Party and won a minority government. However it fell soon after after his first budget failed, which many say failed because he attempted to govern as if he had a majority...

www.alternatehistory.com

 

[David T]

A question for Canadians (or Canadian experts) on the board - with the latest possible POD (and none prior to the calling of the contest in January of that year), how could somebody other than Brian Mulroney have won the 1983 Progressive Conservative Leadership Election? And depending on if Joe Clark holds the leadership or one of the other challengers gets it, how is the 1984 Election affected, assuming Trudeau still has his walk in the snow? And where do Canada's politics go from there?

I'm not a Canadian or even a Canadian expert, but I have something on John Crosbie's prospects at https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/prime-minister-john-crosbie.449133/#post-17407861

(I'm still a little bit surprised by all the Canadian Anglophone politicians with obvious federal leadership ambitions who don't bother to learn French...)