Short Synopsis
In 1976, Brian Mulroney launched a charm offensive the likes of which Canada had never seen, dismantling the political establishment one dad joke at a time. In this psychedelic doomscroll through the mind of a master politician, filmmaker Matthew Rankin charts the flamboyant rise of Canada’s 18th prime minister. From the backwoods of Baie-Comeau to the backrooms of power, Mulroney plots his ascent, trouncing his enemies with a smile and preparing Canada for the unlimited prosperity and permanent unity we live in today.
Long Synopsis
Once upon a time, there was a boy from Baie-Comeau.
That boy would become a man of the people and a furnace of political ambition, destined for the bright lights of our nation’s capital.
Haunted by the ghost of John Diefenbaker and the disembodied voice of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, he sets out to accomplish the Progressive Conservative dream: winning over Quebec, uniting a fragmented country and creating fiscally responsible prosperity for all.
In a genre-bending collage of VHS-ravaged Canadiana, filmmaker Matthew Rankin remixes and reimagines 80,000 pieces of archive, chronicling our 18th prime minister’s crash course with destiny as he clobbers Joe Clark and ushers in a new kind of conservatism for the 1980s. What emerges is a fever dream of politics, propaganda and pop culture as hypnotic as its subject.
Behold the unstoppable ascent of a generational political genius who charmed a nation into oblivion.
Ladies and gentlemen, Brian Mulroney.
First of all, I want to say that I think Brian Mulroney is completely amazing. This film is not the hagiography of blessed St-Brian-de-Baie-Comeau, but neither is it an ideological curb-stomping of the man. You can blame it on my Winnipeg upbringing perhaps, but I relate to the world through irony, and a skeptic has little to offer true believers. I am drawn to Mulroney because he was the prime minister when I was a kid and because of what he means as a cinematic phenomenon: I first understood him, as maybe most people did, as a character on television.
From the many thousands of hours of Mulroney-related news footage and propaganda I have sorted through emerges the full televisual force of an astoundingly charismatic and almost vengefully ambitious man, capable of being duplicitous and even ruthless (but hey, that’s politics), uniquely able to dance so effortlessly between Canada’s notoriously parochial two solitudes and, above all, an astonishing, brilliant political genius.
Don’t misread me: though I genuinely like this man, I still would not vote for him. I am not a person of conservative persuasion, but I also dislike ideologically driven films of any sort that try to tell you how to think. Nonetheless, we are confronted today by a serious reckoning with conservatism, increasingly in its most extreme form. From the vantage point of 2026, the now-forgotten generation of Progressive Conservatives—from John Diefenbaker to Robert Stanfield to Joe Clark—almost appear to be from another planet when we watch them brazenly voicing their support for public institutions, social justice and protecting the environment. It was a world far removed from the infinitely more zealous and combative every-man-for-himself pathology of conservatism today. But in many ways, the political coalition Brian Mulroney earnestly and expertly rallied in 1984 represents a critical turning point in the evolution and meaning of conservatism in Canada.
A final word, on cinematic language. Revamping the long-abandoned NFB tradition of political documentary, Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney uses the tools of genre, satire and experimental abstraction to build a historical argument. My earliest films were found-footage experiments with weird Winnipeg TV commercials, and all of my films involve some element of collage, both in form and content. The viewer may be left with a feeling of doubt about what they are seeing, and I have done everything in my power to encourage that. Even when humourless academic historians do it, synthesizing the raw chronology of the past into a meaningful order with a beginning, a middle and an end is, by its nature, an artistic operation. So I like to be upfront about that: I am an artist, not a chartered accountant, and being brazen instead of covert about cinematic artifice is my way of getting at the truth. A mischief is on the table.
Inspirations: Mordecai Richler, Arthur Lipsett, Soda Jerk, Donald Brittain, Pierre Falardeau, Jacques Godbout, Pierre Berton, Craig Baldwin, Negativland, Racer Trash, Parks Canada, Evelyn Lambart, Roman Kroitor, Liberace, John Ford, Gottschalk + Ash.
Direction, Screenplay, Editing and Research
Matthew Rankin
Producer
Pierre-Mathieu Fortin
Executive Producer
Nathalie Cloutier
Line Producer
Mélanie Lasnier
Archival Producer
Marika Lapointe
Featuring
Brian Mulroney
Joe Clark
Pierre Elliott Trudeau
John Diefenbaker
René Lévesque
Lucien Bouchard
John Turner
Mila Mulroney
Maureen McTeer
Robert Stanfield
Dalton Camp
Heward Grafftey
John Crosbie
Roch La Salle
Motion Graphics and Special Effects
Adrian Replanski
Graphic Artist and Title Designs
Galen Johnson
Analog Glitch Artist
Rob Feulner Quiñones
16mm Animation
Matthew Rankin
Sound Designer
Sacha Ratcliffe
Original Music
Christophe Lamarche-Ledoux
Reenactment Unit
Performers
Body of Brian Mulroney
Brent Skagford
Body of Joe Clark
James McGee
Featuring the voices of
Alain Chevarier
Arthur Holden
Don McWilliams
Matthew Rankin
Director of Photography
Alexandre Lampron
Key Gaffer
Manuel Lessard
Key Grip
Clémentine Martin
Data Wrangler
Louis-Philippe Denis
Production Manager
Virginie Léger
Costume Designer
Patricia McNeill
Art Director
Louisa Schabas
Brain Designer
Ila Firouzabadi
Set Decorator
Elliott Elliott
Props Master
Claudie Lamarche
Senior Production Coordinators
Joëlle Lapointe
Chinda Phommarinh
Production Administrators
Isabelle Limoges
Sia Koukoulas
Unit Production Coordinators
Jeanne Ferland
Stéphanie Lazure
Additional Motion Graphics
Alexandre Roy
Additional Titles
Matthew Rankin
Alexandre Roy
Robert Stanfield 3D Modelling
Dara Najmabadi
Additional Archival Research
Walter Forsberg
Martin Lamontagne
Simon Lacroix
Ed Conroy
Editing Consultant
Xi Feng
French Adaptation
Mélopée B. Montminy
NFB Archives
Alexandra Hubert
Mahsa Khalili
Lea Nakonechny
Josée Riopel
Image Digitization
Nathalie Dallaire
Brianna Setaro
Steven Woloshen
Audio Digitization and Synchronization
Pierre St-Germain
Colour Grading – Archives
Bill Holley
Film Digitization Coordinator
Adam Abouaccar
NFB Rights Section
Mirabelle Bélanger
Saskia Latendresse
Technical Director
Mathieu Tremblay
Technical Coordinators
Luc Binette
Daniel Claveau
Technical Support – Editing
Pierre Dupont
Marie-Josée Gourde
Albert Kurian
Patrick Trahan
Translation and Subtitling
T&S Coop
Online Editor and Colourist
Serge Verreault
Technical Specialist – Animation and Editing
Alexandre Roy
Voice Recording
Luc Léger
Re-recording Mixer
Jean Paul Vialard
Additional Re-recording Mixer
Geoffrey Mitchell
Additional Music Composer
Olivier Hébert
President’s Choice Orchestra
Nicolas Boulay
Alain Bourgeois
Claire Devlin
Alexis Oliver James Boire French
Olivier Hébert
Mark Leclerc
Gentiane Michaud-Gagnon
Sopranos
Alice Charbonneau
Léa Lebeau-Weilbrenner
Nicole Ross
Music
O Canada
Composed by Calixa Lavallée
Satan in Love
Performed by La Bellini
Written by Mario Balducci, Giovanni Belfiore & Marina Bellini
Published by Downtown Music Canada, Downtown DLJ Songs, Curci USA Music Publishing, Star SRL ED. Mus. & Universal Music Publishing Ricordi S.R.L
Courtesy of Carosello Record
When Irish Eyes Are Smiling
Performed by Joni James
Written by Chauncey Olcott, Ernest Ball & George Graff Jr.
Mon oncle Antoine – musique thème
Jean Cousineau
Domestic
Performed by Princess Century
Written by Maya Postepski
Published by Arts & Crafts Music inc.
J’ai perdu 15 cents dans le nez froid d’un ange bronzé
Performed by André Perry
Composed by André Perry & Buddy Fasano
Tomorrow
Composed by Martin Charnin, Charles Strouse
Published by Edwin H. Morris & Company, A Division of MPL Music Publishing, Inc. (ASCAP) & Charles Strouse Publishing (ASCAP) administered by Warner Chappell Music Canada Ltd.
Danger Bay theme
Composed and Performed by Don Gillis
With the permission of Sunrise Films (2000) Limited
Requiem in Paradisum
Composed by Gabriel Fauré
Bubble Sex (2010 – Remaster)
Composed and Performed by Tommy Seebach
Courtesy of WM Denmark
By arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing
Music Rights Research and Clearances
Peter Martinelli-Bunzl
Additional Music
Avec un grand A
Performed by Ginette Reno
Composed by François Guy
La soirée du hockey (Hockey Theme)
Performed by Jerry Toth Orchestra
Composed by Dolores Claman
Visual and Audio Archives
Alamy
All Canada Photos
Archives Radio-Canada
Bibliothèque et archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ)
CBC Licensing
CelebrityArchaeology.com
Chambre des communes du Canada – House of Commons of Canada
CHCO Television Archives
CTV NEWS STOX © BELL MEDIA INC.
Danger Bay – Sunrise Films (2000) Limited
David Paradine Productions Limited/Reelin’ In The Years Productions
Dial-A-Date – David Bronstein
DLI Productions, Irene Angelico and Kent Martin
Frank Schuster Estate
Gouvernement du Canada – Ministère de l’Énergie, Mines et Ressources Canada
Gouvernement du Québec
Global News – Corus Television G.P. Inc.
Gracie Films
Groupe TVA inc.
The Hilarious House of Frightenstein, Mitch Markowitz – Co-producer & Co-star
House of Commons of Canada – Chambre des communes du Canada
iStock/Videologia
John Gow, Tim Kotcheff Fonds – Library and Archives Canada
Johnny Wayne Estate
Library and Archives Canada – Bibliothèque et archives Canada
Matthew Rankin
New Brunswick Community Television
Office national du film du Canada – National Film Board of Canada
Parti québécois
Periscope Film, LLC
Photo GABY
Photographie Antoine Desilets
Pierre Crépô – Mathieu Boucher – Éditions du Mur
Pixabay/Bergadder
Pond5
Prelinger Archives
Privy Council Office. © His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, 2025
ROGERS SPORTS & MEDIA
Société historique de la Côte-Nord – Fonds Jean-Paul Montigny
Télé-Québec
TVO
VCI Entertainment
Webster! – BCTV courtesy of the Royal BC Museum
The following NFB films have been lovingly sampled
Between the Solitudes (Josh Freed, 1992)
The Bronswik Affair (Robert Awad & André Leduc, 1978)
Canada, pays vaste (Jean-Claude Labrecque & Rex Tasker, 1972)
Canada Vignettes: Canada’s Snowbirds (Joan Henson, 1980)
The Canadian Federation (Joan Henson, 1981)
Captive Minds: Hypnosis and Beyond (Pierre Lasry, 1983)
Challenger: An Industrial Romance (Stephen Low, 1980)
The Champions, Part 2: Trappings of Power (Donald Brittain, 1978)
The Champions, Part 3: The Final Battle (Donald Brittain, 1986)
“Dief” (William Canning, 1981)
Directivity (René Jodoin, 1960)
Eye Witness No. 87. (Walter A. Sutton & Alvin Goldman, 1955)
Flora: Scenes from a Leadership Convention (Peter Raymont, 1977)
Helicopter Canada (Eugene Boyko, 1966)
Here Is Canada (Tony Ianzelo, 1972)
History on the Run: The Media and the ‘79 Elections (Peter Raymont, 1979)
Iceland on the Prairies (Radford Crawley, 1941)
In Bed with an Elephant (Kent Martin, 1986)
In the Public Service (Jacques Leduc, 1967)
Jet Pilot (Joseph Koenig, 1964)
King of Blades (Stanley Clish, 1965)
La gammick (Jacques Godbout, 1974)
Le confort et l’indifférence (Denys Arcand, 1981)
Le grand Rock (Raymond Garceau, 1968)
Le mouton noir (Jacques Godbout, 1992)
Listen to the Prairies (Gudrun Parker, 1945)
Lonely Boy (Roman Kroitor & Wolf Koenig, 1962)
Modulo: Variations on a Design (Pierre Moretti, 1973)
Mon Oncle Antoine (Claude Jutra, 1971)
O Canada (Evelyn Lambart, 1952)
Prime Minister Trudeau and His New Cabinet (1968)
Profile of a Problem Drinker (Stanley Jackson, 1957)
Propagation (René Jodoin, 1960)
Pulp and Paper from Canada (1949)
Québec en silence (Gilles Gascon, 1969)
Reflections on a Leadership Convention (Peter Raymont, 1978)
Riding the Tornado (Bob Lower, 1986)
The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes (Bill Mason, 1968)
Road of Iron (Walford Hewitson, 1955)
Royal Journey (Gudrun Parker, 1951)
The Scepter and the Mace (John Howe, 1957)
Series 4 (Normand Grégoire, 1972)
Steeltown (Rex Tasker & Wolf Koenig, 1966)
Trans-Canada Journey (Graham Parker, 1962)
Trans-Canada Summer (Ronald Dick, Jack Olsen & Jean Palardy, 1958)
Universe (Roman Kroitor & Colin Low, 1960)
Additional Archives
1984 NHL Awards – CBC Television
Au Bon Marché – Famille Shiller
Avec un grand A – Radio-Québec
Cinémathèque québécoise
Columbia Gas System Service Corporation / Internet Archive
Community Archives of Belleville and Hastings County
The Edison Twins – CBC Television, Nelvana Films, Canada Films
Les Étoiles de la lutte, 1984
Emmi Roth
La Fondation Lionel Groulx
The Friendly Giant – Homme Estate
Heinrich Hofmann
Hifichet
Library and Archives Canada – Acc. No. R1300-250
Library and Archives Canada – Arthur Roy/PA-47218
Library and Archives Canada – Brian Mulroney Fonds
Library and Archives Canada – C-005327
Library and Archives Canada – C-017617
Library and Archives Canada – Norm Atkins Fonds
Library and Archives Canada – Paul Hellyer Fonds
Library and Archives Canada – Progressive Conservative Party Fonds
Library of Congress
McCain Foods
Ministère de la Santé de l’Ontario – Ontario Ministry of Health
Musée canadien de l’histoire – Canadian Museum of History
National Portrait Gallery, London
New Brunswick Community Television
The Nobel Foundation
Pizza Delight – MTY Group
Progressive Conservative Party Fonds
The Raccoons – CBC Television, Gillis-Wiseman Productions
Retro Ontario
Sécurité publique Canada – Public Safety Canada
Télé-Rencontres, Vidéotron
Toronto Public Library
The Toronto Star
Total Crap
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Wayne Gretzky Wedding Anniversary Special
Special Thanks
Trevor Anderson
Julien Archambault
Harold Bérubé
Éric Bilodeau
Miryam Bouchard
Florence Bourget
David Bronstein
Mathieu Charbonneau
Aisling Chin-Yee
Sylvain Corbeil
Tommy Crane
Natalie Dalessio
Sylvain Desbiens
Ralitsa Doncheva
Pascal Dufaux
Nicolas Dulac
Gwen Dumontet
Elliott Durka-Sisk
Ila Firouzabadi
Alice Fortin
Xavier Gélinas
Amanda Hadi
Steve Hallé
Patrice James
Mounir Kaddouri
Christine Kapalowski
Mahsa Khalili
Cédric Lafontaine
Lynn Lafontaine
Hugh Langis
Sophie Leblond
Karl Lemieux
Jocelyn Létourneau
Chandler Levack
Jamie Levin
Benoit Longval
Mike Maryniuk
Ryan McKenna
Donald McWilliams
Andreas Mendritzki
Jérémie Mercier-Hernandez
Éric Mineault
Payam Mofidi
Mélopée B. Montminy
Solomon Nagler
Pirouz Nemati
Linn Nohrstedt Søndergaard
Olivia Norménn-Smith
Patrick Osborne
Kire Paputts
Boris Petrowski
Nicolas Petrowski
Nima Pourtolami
Monique Quesnel
Sacha Ratcliffe
Victoria Redden
Julie Roy
Jarrett Rudy
Fred Savard
Lar Simms
Andrew Sisk
Annie St-Pierre
Isabelle Stachtchenko
Studio Mixart
Bronia Sussman
Joëlle Villeneuve
Andreas Wieland
Matthew Woods
Aonan Yang
Darren Yearsley
Brian J. Young
Senior Marketing Advisors
Laurianne Désormiers
Kay Rondonneau
Marketing Project Managers
Geneviève Bérard
Andrea Elalouf
Gaëlle Graton
Marketing Coordinators
Harmonie Hemming
Michelle Rozon
Publicist
Sophie St-Pierre
Legal Advisor
Peter Kallianiotis
© 2026 National Film Board of Canada