Since the news broke of the passing of Brian Mulroney, Canada’s 18th Prime Minister, many commemorations and personal anecdotes have poured forth. So many people knew him and were inspired by him, and so many more people who didn’t know him felt like they knew him and that inspiration carried forth to them.
I’d never met Mulroney, so I don’t have a personal story to relay, but there are many of them you can find on social media that are very touching. The tributes from his children, grandchildren, and those who worked with him throughout his time in politics are particularly moving.
I have found myself reflecting on one particular anecdote, though. I first read it a number of years ago and it comes to mind every now and then. It was one that I’ve used myself to guide me in my own recent run for office. It’s a simple but powerful one.
Brian Mulroney was running for the leadership of the Progressive Conservatives the second time around, in 1983, the one he eventually won. Things were going well for him. The finish line was drawing near. At some point the candidate’s team received word of a young woman who was a delegate at the convention—these were the days before “one member, one vote”—and who was genuinely undecided in her selection.
The campaign was surely hearing of many such undecided people among the 3,000 delegates. They could have had a campaign member simply call and badger her to get on board. Or, given it was only one vote, they could have ignored her and let her figure it out herself. But that’s not what happened.
The woman requested a meeting with the candidate in a suburban restaurant in Ottawa. You’d think that was a bit much, to want a solo meeting with the man himself in a somewhat out-of-the-way location. But Mulroney went. He sat down with the delegate for a significant amount of time and discussed the issues of the day then they went their separate ways. She voted for Mulroney at the convention. The rest is history.
I know it’s not a very dramatic story (and I’m telling it from memory so I may have flubbed a minor point). Mulroney met someone for coffee. So what?
But there are lessons to be learned from this anecdote. For starters, everyone matters. Every voice matters, and it’s worth hearing people out. There’s a phrase in the business world that says “take the meeting.” If someone wants to jump on a call, then jump on the call. If someone wants a meeting, take the meeting. The person may be of no prominence or appear to be of little value, and you may not know what’s going to come of the meeting, but who knows, take the meeting and be open to learning and being surprised.
The legendary music executive Clive Davis speaks about something similar when talking about how he helped pioneer mainstream hip-hop music in the 1990s. He describes how as a Jewish lawyer who wore a suit and had no musical ability, he arguably had little to nothing in common with the young black men who were rapping on the streets. But, as he tells it, he saw young people who were passionately expressing themselves and told himself he had to meet with them to listen to what they had to say. He was open to hearing from people. Again, the rest is history.
Of all the Brian Mulroney anecdotes out there to share, it may seem like I’ve picked an odd one. After all, there are so many stories of grandeur related to major issues and world affairs, and they are indeed good ones.
But one thing we have seen in recent days is that almost everyone has a Brian Mulroney story and most of them are small but important to them. Everyone feels like he was someone who listened to them and gave them the time of day. It’s not just that he met with this one person, but that the meeting symbolized his approach to politics in general.
Policy is something that can be learned through study, but politics is something different. It needs to be learned in the street, face to face, where people make meaningful connections.
The people are ultimately what matter most. It’s clear that’s something that Brian Mulroney felt deeply.
