“It had only been two months since I’d last seen the recently inaugurated president, and I was shocked at the change in his appearance. His face was blotchy and he had put on weight. He was tired and exasperated, because he was under relentless attack. Bill told me how down he felt and how unhappy he was about his own prospects. I could relate to his situation and proceeded to give him a pep talk.

‘Stop campaigning and making speeches and working until midnight,’ I said. ‘It’s time you started giving Congress some TLC. You should use Camp David and pose for pictures with the necessary congressmen and senators. You must wear your unpopularity as a badge of honour. Return to your campaign thrust by moving toward the centre. You shouldn’t take any of this personally; it’s much too early in your first term.’

                 I also reminded him about the 1981 British poll in which a vast majority said that Margaret Thatcher would be remembered as the worst prime minister in the country’s long history. Then along came the Falklands crisis, and she was re- elected twice before she left office.

                 While I knew Bill faced a tough battle in the three and a half years ahead, I could already sense he’d come out a winner. It was not for nothing that he’d been dubbed the ‘Comeback Kid.’”

Out of office, Mulroney enjoyed a friendship with Clinton for the rest of his life.