Serving as Canada’s Leader of the Opposition is often one of Canada’s most thankless jobs. But every once-in-awhile a politician in that role has a great day. And that was the case for Progressive Conservative Leader Brian Mulroney on this date in 1984. The future Prime Minister was in Washington, D.C. where he was granted a lengthy meeting with American President Ronald Reagan, Vice President George H.W. Bush and other Republican power-brokers. After the meeting, and in front of the press, President Reagan famously wished Mulroney “god-speed.” Moving forward, as Prime Minister this time, Mulroney was able to leverage many of the contacts he’d made on that trip as Leader of the Opposition to advance Canada’s interest. And, as a bonus, pictures in the press of Mr. Mulroney with the American President would help cement his foreign policy credentials only weeks away from an election call; an election Mulroney would win by landslide. caption id="attachment_529265" align="aligncenter" width="600" PM Brian Mulroney and U.S. President Ronald Reagan/caption Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist.  He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy.  A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.