Brian Mulroney Quotes

It is not the function of the leader of government business to discipline members of the executive.

I don't think I have suffered for want of being a Cabinet minister. I don't have a Cabinet minister to whom I report. I report directly to the Prime Minister.

Making the bureaucracy accountable to the President in any comprehensive and enduring way is impossible. Making it alert to his preferences is possible in those cases where Presidents put loyal and competent subordinates in charge of making decisions.

If our system of cabinet government is to work effectively, the prime minister of the day must appoint ministers he or she trusts and then leave them to carry out that policy.

My fellow citizens, the American Presidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery.

I have no ambitions to be a cabinet minister, or prime minister. I wouldn't wish being prime minister on my worst enemy.

The president of the United States is a commander-in-chief, and the president of the United States, you know, executes the laws and tries to motivate the American public to make changes that are necessary. It's not necessarily a CEO type of position.

If I were the president, I would be very concerned... and I would do what was reasonably necessary to find a way to get my people confirmed.

We didn't pass any constitutional amendments that affected the executive branch while I was governor.

If I had to resign every time the Cabinet disagrees with me, I could not last as a Defense Minister one week.

The presidency is more than a popularity contest.

The presidency is the most visible thread that runs through the tapestry of the American government. More often than not, for good or for ill, it sets the tone for the other branches and spurs the expectations of the people.

I would like to become the prime minister, do the job for two years, and then leave and devote myself to public work.

I suppose this [Watergate] is an example of the dangers of letting down your guard against increased executive powers–no matter what the circumstances. Not that the danger was not real, but in this case the risk of the remedy was as great as the disease. There was a willingness to accept without challenge the Executive's claim to increased power. That's why we acted as we did, and it was a mistake.

I have not had the cabinet here for 6 weeks. I can run the government better without them.

For 22 years [as a Senator] I worried about all the power at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. Now [as Treasury Secretary] I worry about all the power at the opposite end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

A chief executive doesn’t get to pick and choose which laws he will enforce.

The most important benefit that I can confer on the country by my Presidency is to insist upon the entire independence of the executive and legislative branches of government

I don't believe the President of the United States should debate with anybody.

I am well aware of what three past presidents have said, but that will not be worth five cents if the people and the Congress do not support their president now.”

The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war and most prone to it.

No branch of government should ever be able to combine the power of the sword with the power of the purse.

Governor of Louisiana By the Grace of the People

there is often an imbalance between the prerogatives of the executive branch and the capacity of a parliament to truly exercise its regulatory powers over public spending and the budget.

Well, what the hell is the Presidency for?