By Andrew Macdonald
- Topic: More On Former Prime Minister’s Northumberland Strait Property Play
After my Antigonish-Cape Breton roving journalist, 20-year news veteran Corey LeBlanc filed a series of news stories on elder statesman Brian Mulroney’s hour-long speech at his Mulroney Institute of Government at STFX’s Antigonish – those stories were published in The Notebook on Saturday – I decided to reach out to the former Canadian prime minister.
I sent a note to Mulroney, at his wintertime home in Palm Beach, and he called me back within five minutes of sending an email note.
We did have Mulroney’s STFX address in spades on Saturday – but Mulroney, Canada’s 18th prime minister, is good for high Notebook readership traction.
Brian Mulroney raised a total of $100-million for Mulroney Hall, shown in this architectural rendering. Part of the money goes to Brian Mulroney Institute of Government, which has multi-millions of dollars in scholarships including a large chunk for Indigenous and Black/African STFX University students.
I was curious to talk to Mulroney on news he is looking to buy a pied-a-terre along the Northumberland Strait.
I was also curious to expand on the brutal and horrible invasion of Ukraine, and ask elder statesman Mulroney if we are witnessing the start of World War III.
The war questions for Mulroney, who along with Ronald Regan, Margie Thatcher & Pope John Paul II in the early 1990s ended the Cold War, after the Soviet Union collapsed, were asked because the Russian invasion of the Ukraine has beaten up my vivid imagination and impacted my normally under control schizophrenia.
Brian Mulroney had a very close friendship with the late U.S. President George Bush. This photo is on display at Mulroney Hall. Mulroney gave the eulogy at Bush’s funeral.
In my 25-minute chat with Tory PM Mulroney, we also on Saturday spoke about the meaning of Peter MacKay’s bowing out of the national Conservative race. That segment will run in a future edition of The Notebook.
On The Hunt for NS Waterfront Property
Mulroney explains his desire to buy waterfront property in rural NS.
“Where I am is this: I am looking around. I have always loved the area. And, now that the Mulroney Institute is built (at STFX), and I have to participate of course in its number of events (such as lectures), and now that Covid is over, I will participate personally”, Mulroney tells The Notebook.
“So, I am looking around. I am just at the early stage of looking around on the water, somewhere outside of Antigonish, or Merigomish, looking for something on the water, and I will probably build – buy a property and build”, adds Mulroney.
I asked if he would buy at Terra Tory, the well heeled 50-year-old housing subdivision on the shores of Antigonish, developed by the late Mulroney lobbyist, Pizza Joe Stewart, also fondly known as Big Tory Daddy, who died in 2016.
Brian Mulroney is seen in this picture looking at an Official Mulroney family commissioned portrait of his time as Prime Minister. It hangs at STFX’s Mulroney Hall. An exact replica of the painting hangs on Parliament Hill. Former Globe & Mail journalist, Jane Taber, is seen in this 2018 file picture. She is with National PR, which represents Mulroney. The Notebook file photo.
If Mulroney bought at Terry Tory, he would be neighbours to Top Tories, Brian MacLeod & Noel Sampson, both who were Mulroney organizers dating back to 1983, when Mulroney won the PC party of Canada leadership convention.
MacLeod, a nursing home tycoon, and Sampson, a government lobbyist were often dinner guests at 24 Sussex Drive, and MacLeod has been written up by Mulroney foe, Stevie Cameron in her book On The Take, a negative review of the Mulroney era.
“No, no, you are way ahead of me. I am just at the phase of (looking). The next time I go down to Antigonish, I will start looking around”, he tells me.
“What I am going to require is something on the water, as I say either in Antigonish or Merigomish”. Merigomish is in Pictou County, on the shores of Northumberland Strait, while Antigonish waterfront properties also border the strait, as well as Antigonish Harbour and St. George’s Bay, the bay separates mainland NS from Cape Breton.
Mulroney still keeps in touch with MacLeod. “I talked to Brian, when (his spouse) Irene passed. They were both great supporters of mine. They are both wonderful people and I enjoyed them enormously – and we will always miss Irene, she was just wonderful”. Irene MacLeod died in 2020.
Brian Mulroney was a very close friend of the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan. This display is part of the Mulroney Hall exhibit.
“As you know, I represented Central Nova (in 1983), and I love the place and love the people”.
The ex-PM adds that the Mulroney policy school, where the Mulroney Hall cost $50M to build, and where he raised a total of $100M through global contacts, “is getting to be a bigger operation, and we are going to have a lot of international guest speakers come, and I’d like to lecture from time to time with the students, and meet with the students and engage with them”.
I asked Mulroney if he would live in NS for half the year, spend the other half at his compound in Palm Beach.
“Oh, I have no idea”, repeating several times that the property play “is in very early days – I am just thinking about it. I am not there at all, I am just thinking about it”.
Mulroney’s primary residence in is West Mount, in Montreal, where he and Mila occupy a penthouse suite condo.
I asked if the plan is to sell the condo and move half the year to NS.
“No, I will keep the property in Montreal, the penthouse, and keep the property here in Florida in Palm Beach, no matter what, I’ll keep them”, he adds.
Irene & Brian MacLeod in 1983 backed a young Brian Mulroney as federal PC leader, and would become regular dinner guests at 24 Sussex Drive when Mulroney was prime minister. This picture was taken when Brian Mulroney won the 1983 Tory leadership contest. He is with Mila. This photo is on display at Mulroney Hall at ST FX.
“It’‘s just a thought I have, and I am looking around. I am not there at all (to buy immediately). I am kind of thinking. I am just thinking this might be a good time for me to buy given the institute down there, and my love of the region and the people, this might be a good place to have a home when I go down to STFX – which I do quite often – go down there and meet with the students and faculty and deliver some lectures and speeches”.
