Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney says people shouldn鈥檛 read too much into the fact that he sang during a fundraiser dinner at U.S. President Donald Trump鈥檚 private club on Saturday.
鈥淚t doesn't really signal anything,鈥� Mulroney told CTV鈥檚 Power Play Tuesday, referring to his rendition of 鈥淲hen Irish Eyes are Smiling鈥� at the Mar-a-Lago social club fundraiser, where he had been seated with the Trumps, who are his neighbours in Palm Beach, Fla.
鈥淎s I said when I sang the song, this was for a charity for cancer,鈥� he added. 鈥淚 wasn't singing for Donald Trump, I was singing because of the huge demand from the audience.鈥�
The demands included a request from Canadian songwriter David Foster, who had called Mulroney to the stage during the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute fundraiser and said: "I would never presume to say that I could go to the president of the United States and ask him to sing, so I won't.鈥�
Mulroney said the more important thing to focus on is what Trump told him about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada, at a time when the countries are renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement Mulroney signed in 1992.
鈥淗e was very positive on both scores,鈥� Mulroney said.
Mulroney added that he but that he believes 鈥渨e'll come out of this with a trilateral agreement even though I understand that the preference of the Americans going forward is now for bilateral rather than multilateral negotiations.鈥�
On Tuesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters that any negotiations on NAFTA 鈥渨ould be three-way negotiations,鈥� adding that Canada 鈥渧alues its partnership with Mexico.鈥�
Much of the negotiation for NAFTA鈥檚 predecessor, the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, was conducted between Mulroney and Ronald Reagan, whom he had joined in singing 鈥淲hen Irish Eyes are Smiling鈥� at a summit in Quebec City in 1985.
With files from The Canadian Press
