"You had an option, sir" (sometimes remembered as You had a choice, sir) was a phrase used by
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney ( ; born March 20, 1939) is a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993.
Born in the eastern Quebec city of Baie-Comeau, Mulroney studied political sci ...
against
John Turner during the
English-language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
leaders debate in the
1984 Canadian federal election
The 1984 Canadian federal election was held on September 4, 1984, to elect members to the House of Commons of the 33rd Parliament of Canada.
In one of the largest landslide victories in Canadian political history, the Progressive Conservative ...
. The exchange is considered one of the only "knockout blows" in the history of
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
political debate.
Background
After deciding to leave office in February 1984,
Pierre Trudeau
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau ( , ; October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000), also referred to by his initials PET, was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada
The prime mini ...
retired as
Prime Minister of Canada
The prime minister of Canada (french: premier ministre du Canada, link=no) is the head of government of Canada. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the Confidence and supply, confidence of a majority the elected Hou ...
in June of that year.
Polls showed that he would almost certainly be defeated by Mulroney and the
Progressive Conservatives in the next election. Trudeau's
Liberals chose Turner, a former
Cabinet minister
A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ‘prime minister’, â ...
under Trudeau and
Lester B. Pearson
Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson (23 April 1897 – 27 December 1972) was a Canadian scholar, statesman, diplomat, and politician who served as the 14th prime minister of Canada from 1963 to 1968.
Born in Newtonbrook, Ontario (now part of ...
, as their new leader in a
bitterly contested leadership convention in which Turner defeated six rivals, most notably Trudeau's preferred successor
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (; born January 11, 1934) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003.
Born and raised in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, Chrétien is a law graduate from Uni ...
.
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 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."
The campaign is best remembered for Mulroney's attacks on a raft of Liberal
patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...
appointments. In his final days in office, Trudeau had controversially appointed a flurry of
senators, judges, and executives on various governmental and
crown corporation
A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...
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.
However, the appointments were not finalized prior to Trudeau's leaving office. The new prime minister, Turner, therefore had the right to recommend that
Governor-General
Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...
Jeanne Sauvé 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 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.
Televised debate
The English language debate was held on July 25, 1984. Ironically, Turner had planned to attack Mulroney over the
patronage machine 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
Union Nationale 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 "these horrible appointments." Turner was taken by surprise by Mulroney's retort, and replied that "I had no option" except to let the appointments stand. Mulroney famously responded:
Turner, clearly flustered by this withering riposte from Mulroney, could only repeat "I had no option." A visibly angry Mulroney replied:
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.'"
Aftermath
Mulroney later disclosed to
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
Peter C. Newman
Peter Charles Newman (born May 10, 1929) is a Canadian journalist and writer.
Life and career
Born in Vienna, Austria, Newman emigrated from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to Canada in 1940 as a Jewish refugee. His parents were Wanda Maria and O ...
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
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic:
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leader
Ed Broadbent's attitude that I had scored heavily."
[Peter C. Newman, '']The Secret Mulroney Tapes
''The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister'' is a biography of former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, by writer and former Mulroney confidant Peter C. Newman.
The book was released by Random House Canada on Sep ...
'': Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister. Random House Canada, 2005, p. 81.
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.
References
{{reflist
External links
Video of the exchange(from CBC archives)
1984 in Canada
Canadian political phrases
Brian Mulroney
July 1984 events in Canada
1984 Canadian federal election