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could not risk provoking on the eve of an election. Despite strong pressure for Turner to scuttle the appointments, he refused to do so. Instead, he proceeded to appoint several more
Liberals to prominent political offices. Turner cited a written agreement which would see Trudeau retire early in return for the appointments being made.
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fashioned, using outmoded slang on several occasions that made voters see him as a relic from the past, causing the
Liberals to fall far behind in polls. Most famously, he spoke of "make-work programs," a term that had long ago fallen into disfavour compared to the less-patronizing "job-creation programs."
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Just four days after being sworn in as prime minister, Turner called a general election for
September, persuaded by internal polls which showed the Liberals far ahead, even though he was not obligated to dissolve Parliament until 1985. This proved disastrous as Turner initially appeared rusty and old
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that he did not know his "You had an option" response would be positively received as he was speaking it. He claimed, "At this point, I know there's been a dramatic, historic exchange, but I wasn't sure whether I had helped or hurt my case. I really wasn't. As the debate ended, I could see from the
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in Quebec. However, Mulroney successfully turned the tables by pointing to the recent raft of
Liberal patronage appointments. He had earlier made light of the appointments while on the hustings, but publicly apologized for doing so. He then demanded that Turner apologize to the country for making
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cancel the appointments—advice that Sauvé would have been obligated to follow in accordance with
Canadian constitutional practice. However, such a move would almost certainly have further alienated the Trudeau-Chrétien faction of the Liberal Party, something Turner's advisors believed the party
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You could have said, 'I am not going to do it. This is wrong for Canada, and I am not going to ask
Canadians to pay the price.' You had an option, sir — to say 'no' — and you chose to say 'yes' to the old attitudes and the old stories of the Liberal Party. That sir, if I may say
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After the televised debate, little else altered the course of the campaign. In the
September election, the Tories won 211 seats, the most that a Canadian party has ever won, while the Liberals lost 95 seats, the worst defeat at the time for a governing party at the federal level in Canada.
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that the latter had allegedly set up in anticipation of victory. He launched what appeared to be the start of a blistering attack on
Mulroney by comparing his patronage machine to that of the old
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The exchange led most of the papers the next day, with most of them paraphrasing
Mulroney's counterattack as "You had an option, sir — you could have said 'no.'"
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That is an avowal of failure! That is a confession of non-leadership. And this country needs leadership. You had an option, sir. You could have done better.
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However, the appointments were not finalized prior to
Trudeau's leaving office. The new prime minister, Turner, therefore had the right to recommend that
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Turner, clearly flustered by this withering riposte from Mulroney, could only repeat "I had no option." A visibly angry Mulroney replied:
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boards. This was widely seen as a way to offer "plum jobs" to long-time Liberals loyal to the Trudeau-Chrétien faction of the party.
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The English language debate was held on July 25, 1984. Ironically, Turner had planned to attack Mulroney over the
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in which Turner defeated six rivals, most notably Trudeau's preferred successor
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347:: Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister. Random House Canada, 2005, p. 81.
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The campaign is best remembered for Mulroney's attacks on a raft of Liberal
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showed that he would almost certainly be defeated by Mulroney and the
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respectfully, that is not good enough for Canadians.
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