text: Free trade is "how" the Tories won that 1988 election. Big win. And their big loss to the Chretien Liberals years later had NOTHING TO DO with free trade. Mulroney's government had thoroughly worn out its welcome - as governments often do after eight years running the show in Ottawa. Liberals expanded his government's deal to NAFTA - and prosperity still abounds. Even the NDP wouldn't want to end the show.