Mulroney was a Yuppie long before the term was coined. He drove a mammoth convertible -- picked up at a bargain price from a friend -- and dressed conservatively and impeccably, always wearing the best suit he could afford. (It was during these years that he started the habit of changing shirts several times a day, like his idol John F. Kennedy. In the middle of a negotiation he would break for twenty minutes and take a shower and change his shirt.) He started buying Canadian paintings, and eventually he would acquire quite a collection. Like many boys from poor backgrounds, Mulroney was impressed by money and what it could buy almost as much as by power -- some argued more.
John Sawatsky, Mulroney: The Politics of Ambition (Macfarlane Walter & Ross: 1991) p. 201.
