06-01 Federal-Provincial Conferences
You had the feeling the CFIB was moving into the big leagues when an invitation arrived from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to attend the September 1980 Federal-Provincial Conference in Ottawa as an observer. In the photo, I can be seen with Prime Minister Trudeau and Premier Davis of Ontario.It had been ten years since…
06-02 The MacEachen Budget 1981
It was November 12, 1981, and I was in the CBC studio waiting to go on air to comment on the MacEachen Budget, but I was still waiting for them to give me a copy of the Budget papers. When they arrived, I had only ten minutes to look them over, but quickly recognized an…
06-03 Building Support
In developing broad opposition to government policy such as the massive tax grab built into the MacEachen Budget of November 1981, the first task is to explain publicly that as an organization, we are non-partisan. That even if the budget was written on "tablets", it would still be opposed. Our political opposition and one-liners must…
06-04 Bank Surveys
Part of the fun working as a teenager for my father was going each day with him to make the bank deposit. We walked over to the CIBC branch at the corner of Yonge and College. There was a real friendship between my father and the branch manager, who worked at that branch for over…
06-05 Marc Lalonde
Preparing for the Lalonde Budget of 1983 was challenging. 1982 had been a difficult time for the nation and for the small business community: high inflation, high interest rates, high unemployment, high small business closures and a nasty confrontation with the previous Minister of Finance over his November 1981 Budget. An excellent and lengthy pre-budget…
06-06 Ten Year Celebrations
It is hard to remember a year so full of action than in1981. The International Symposium on Small Business came to Ottawa in the Fall. The MacEachen Budget was a major shock with about 160 proposals to amend the Income Tax Act. However, the joy of the year was celebrating ten years of action on…
06-07 MacDonald Royal Commission
It was called the Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada. And the CFIB report was called A Full Employment Future.I don't think I have ever been prouder of CFIB than when we submitted it in on December 1, 1983. Our suggestions for the creation of full employment was based on…
06-08 Brian Mulroney
When Prime Minister Mulroney swept to power with a massive majority in the November 1984 election, the CFIB was well positioned with solid working relationships with all his senior Ministers. In particular, Michael Wilson, Minister of Finance and Flora MacDonald, Minister of Manpower and Immigration. The first major event which essentially was political in nature,…
06-09 Michael Wilson
Talk about high finance. Michael Wilson as the Minister of Finance was bold and competent, but controversial. The real excitement was with his budgets of 1985 and 1987. In our pre-budget submission of 1985, there was enormous media interest in the kinds of changes Wilson was supporting as well as our recommendations. We wanted a…
06-10 The Reform Party
“John Bulloch? Preston Manning calling.” And what followed was a visit from Alberta in 1986 to the CFIB home office in Toronto. Preston came to tell me that he was going to form a social conservative party and wanted me to lead it. He showed me multiple graphs from numerous studies he had commissioned that…
06-11 Canada-US Free Trade
When the MacDonald Royal Commission Report in 1985 recommended that Canada enter into a Free Trade Pact with the United States, it was apparent that we were at a time of historical importance. Donald MacDonald called it a "Leap of Faith."The Mulroney government agreed with the Royal Commission’s recommendations and capitalizing on an excellent relationship…
06-12 GST vs HST
Some history is significant here. Early in Prime Minister Mulroney's term of office, he created the Neilson Task Force, headed by the Deputy Prime Minister Eric Neilson from Whitehorse. And a CFIB Board member, Ron Farano, was a member of that task force. Ron informed us that their examination of over 1,000 spending programs did…
06-13 The Bob Rae Government
It was October 1990 when the new Ontario NDP government led by Bob Rae was sworn in. They got a majority government with only 37.6% of the popular vote, and the NDP was undoubtedly just as shocked as the general public. The CFIB, of course, had met with Mr. Rae and several members of his…
06-14 NAFTA
It was the Canada-US Free Trade issue all over again. Not surprisingly, the CFIB membership supported the expansion of the free trade arrangement with the US to Mexico. Again, we were asked to join an important advisory committee whose purpose was to win public support for the potential new trade agreement. The Agreement was initiated…
06-15 Paul Martin
“Mr. Bulloch. My name is Paul Martin and I am a recently elected MP from the constituency of La Salle Emerd in Quebec. I just wanted to introduce myself and tell you how much I admire your work on behalf of small business.”This early introduction by the former Finance Minister and Prime Minister took place…
06-16 The ISBC 1999
The sign on the podium was not needed to tell me it was a photo from 1999. The vanishing hair tells the whole story. It was a glorious farewell address to an organization I loved, the International Small Business Congress, held in Toronto in October with roughly 1,000 delegates from over 60 nations.And of course,…