John Turner

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The Rt. Hon. John Napier Turner,
PC, CC, QC, MA, BCL, LLD

17th Prime Minister of Canada
In office June 30, 1984 – September 17, 1984
Preceded by	Pierre Trudeau
Succeeded by	Brian Mulroney
Born	June 7, 1929 Richmond, Surrey, England
Political party	Liberal
Religion	Roman Catholic

John Turner, PC, CC, QC, MA, BCL, LLD (born June 7, 1929) was the seventeenth Prime Minister of Canada from June 30, 1984 to September 17, 1984. He is the oldest living former Prime Minister. According to Canadian protocol, as a former Prime Minister, he is styled "The Right Honourable" for life.

Contents 1 Early life 2 "The Golden Boy" 3 Bay Street 4 Prime Minister 5 Leader of the Opposition 5.1 1988 Federal Election 6 Legacy 7 Books 8 External links

[edit] Early life

He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England to Leonard Turner and Phyllis Gregory, and emigrated to Canada as a baby in 1932. Turner was the first PM since Mackenzie Bowell to not be Canadian-born. He was educated at Ashbury College for high school, the University of British Columbia (B.A. Honours) and Oxford University, (Rhodes Scholar, B.A., Bachelor of Civil Law).

He was married in 1963 to Geills McCrae Kilgour (b. 1937) and has one daughter and three sons. He practised law in Toronto, Ontario, and was elected as a member of Parliament in 1962. Their children attended Rockcliffe Park Public School, in Ottawa.

[edit] "The Golden Boy"

He served in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Lester Pearson in various capacities, most notably as Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs. When Pearson retired, Turner ran to succeed him at the 1968 leadership convention. The youthful Turner claimed that "My time is now," and remarked during his speech that he was "not here for some vague, future convention in say, 1984." Turner was far behind winner Pierre Trudeau and runner-up Robert Winters, but stayed on until the fourth and final ballot anyway, finishing third.

Turner served in Trudeau's cabinet as Minister of Justice for four years. Turner then served as Minister of Finance from 1972 until 1975, when he surprisingly resigned from cabinet due to personality conflicts with Trudeau.

[edit] Bay Street

From 1975 to 1984, Turner worked as a corporate lawyer at Bay Street law firm McMillan Binch. When Pierre Trudeau resigned as Liberal leader in 1979 following an election loss, Turner announced that he would not be a candidate for the Liberal leadership. Trudeau was talked into rescinding his resignation after the government of Joe Clark was defeated by a Motion of No Confidence, and returned to contest, and win the 1980 federal election. Trudeau would serve as Prime Minister until 1984.

[edit] Prime Minister

Trudeau retired after polls showed the Liberals faced certain defeat in the next election if he remained in office. Turner then re-entered politics, and defeated Jean Chrétien, his successor as finance minister, on the second ballot of the June 1984 Liberal leadership convention. He was formally appointed Prime Minister on June 30.

Trudeau recommended that Governor General Jeanne Sauvé appoint over 200 Liberals to well-paying patronage positions in his final days in office. These appointments generated a severe backlash across the spectrum. Turner had the right to recommend that the appointments be cancelled: advice that Sauvé was bound to follow by constitutional convention. However, he let them stand, and himself appointed over 70 Liberal MPs to patronage positions. Turner refused to produce a written agreement he'd made with Trudeau before taking office, documenting a secret deal that saw Trudeau step down early. This hampered his attempt to distance himself from Trudeau's policies and practices.

Although Turner was not obligated to call an election until 1985, he was persusaded by internal polls that he was ahead of the Tories. Accordingly, on July 4--only four days after being sworn in--he called an election. Early in the campaign, Turner appeared rusty and old fashioned, using outmoded slang on several occasions. Most famously, he spoke of creating "make work programs", a concept from the 1970s that had been replaced by the less patronizing "job creation programs". He was also caught on television pinching the bottoms of Liberal Party President Iona Campagnolo and Vice-President Lise St. Martin-Tremblay, causing an uproar among feminists who saw such behaviour as sexist and condescending.

During the televised leaders' debate, Turner attacked Conservative leader Brian Mulroney over the patronage machine that the latter had set up in anticipation of victory, comparing it to the old days of the Union Nationale in Quebec. However, Mulroney turned the tables by pointing to the raft of patronage appointments made on the advice of Trudeau and Turner. Mulroney demanded that Turner apologize to the country for what he called "these horrible appointments," but Turner claimed that "I had no option" except to let them stand. Mulroney famously responded, "You had an option, sir--to say 'no'--and you chose to say 'yes' to the old attitudes and the old stories of the Liberal Party." (This quote is usually paraphrased as "You had an option, sir; you could have said 'no.'") Many observers believed that Turner lost the election at this point, as it made him look weak, indecisive, and no different from Trudeau.

Turner discovered in the latter half of the campaign that the Liberals' electoral hopes were poor in their traditional stronghold, Quebec. The party relied on Trudeau's appeal, patronage, and traditional dislike of the Conservatives for victory in the recent elections. Trudeau himself did not campaign for Turner, instead only showing up to support some MP candidates. Turner rehired much of Trudeau's staff during the final weeks in an attempt to turn the tide, but this had little effect. Another problem was Quebec's disaffection with the federal Liberals for being left out of the patriation of constitution in 1982. Mulroney, a native Quebecker, was able to harness that discontent to the Conservatives' advantage by promising a new Constitutional agreement.

The last days of the campaign saw one Liberal blunder piled on another. Turner continued to speak of "make work programs" and made other gaffes that caused voters to see him as a relic from the past.

On September 4, Turner and the Liberals were swept from power in a Tory landslide. The Liberals were cut down to 40 seats, the fewest in the party's history, against 211 for the Tories. At the time, it was the worst defeat ever suffered for a governing party at the federal level. Turner stepped down as prime minister on September 30. He held the office for 2 months and 17 days, the second shortest in Canadian history after Sir Charles Tupper, and implemented no legislative initiatives.

[edit] Leader of the Opposition

Turner managed to defeat the Tory incumbent in Vancouver Quadra, becoming his party's only MP from British Columbia, and became leader of the opposition. The Liberals, amid their worst showing in party history and led by an unpopular Turner, were said by some pundits to be following the British Liberals into oblivion. The Liberals responded by using their large Senate majority, built up over years of Liberal majorities in the Commons, to stall Mulroney's legislation. In addition, a group of young Liberal MPs, known as the "Rat Pack," pestered Mulroney at every turn. The group included Sheila Copps, Brian Tobin, Don Boudria and John Nunziata.

Turner's leadership was frequently questioned, and in the lead up to the 1986 Liberal convention, a vote of confidence loomed large. The popular Chrétien resigned his seat, creating a stir in caucus. The ongoing and often open unpopularity of Turner within his own party led to many editorial cartoonists to draw him with a back stabbed full of knives. Keith Davey and other Liberals began a public campaign against Turner, coinciding with backroom struggles involving Chrétien's supporters. The public conflict is said to have influenced many Liberals to support Turner, and he ended up getting 75% of the delegate vote.

The Liberals faced more internal conflict in the next few years, but polls frequently had them in front of the Conservatives (however, with Turner last in preferred Prime Minister categories). The upcoming Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and Meech Lake Accord threatened to divide the party until Turner took the position of being pro-Meech Lake and against the FTA. Turner asked the Liberal Senators to hold off on passing the legislation to implement the agreement until an election was held. It was later revealed that Mulroney planned to call an election anyway.

[edit] 1988 Federal Election

When the election was called in 1988, the Liberals had some early struggles, notably during one day in Montreal where 3 different costs were given for the proposed Liberal daycare program. The campaign was also hampered by a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation report that stated there was a movement in the backroom to replace Turner with Chrétien.

Turner campaigned much more vigorously than in 1984, rallying support against the proposed FTA, an agreement that he said would lead to the abandonment of Canada's political sovereignty to the United States. His performance in the debate and his attacks on Mulroney and the FTA raised his poll numbers, and soon the Liberals were hoping for a majority. This prompted the Conservatives to stop the relatively calm campaign they had been running, and go with Allan Gregg's suggestion of "bombing the bridge" that joined anti-FTA voters and the Liberals: Turner's credibility. The ads focused on Turner's leadership struggles, and combined with over $6 million CAD in pro-FTA ads, stopped Turner's momentum.

The Liberals doubled their representation to 83 seats and kept their role as the Official Opposition; the NDP had also made gains but finished a distant third with 43 seats. The Progressive Conservatives won a reduced majority government with 169 seats. Although this election confirmed the Liberals as Canada's second major party, the results were considered a disappointment for Turner. Polls in mid-campaign had predicted a Liberal majority. The election loss seemed to confirm Turner's fate; he eventually resigned in 1990, and was succeeded by Chrétien.

[edit] Legacy

Turner's changes to the Liberal Party's ideology, policies and membership during his years as party leader may be his legacy, rather than his brief months as prime minister. While Turner campaigned against the Free Trade Agreement in 1988, he was largely pro-business and favoured smaller government and tax cuts for corporations during his six years as Liberal Party leader.

[edit] Books

• Norman Snider, 'The Changing of the Guard: How the Liberals Fell From Grace and the Tories Rose to Power', 1985 [ISBN 0-88619-090-8]
• Greg Weston, 'Reign of Error: the Inside Story of John Turner's Troubled Leadership', 1988 [ISBN 0-07-549693-3]

[edit] External links

• Federal Political Biography from the Library of Parliament
• University of British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame
• CBC Digital Archives - The Long Run: The Political Rise of John Turner

23rd Ministry - Government of John Turner
Cabinet Post
Predecessor	Office	Successor
Pierre Trudeau	Prime Minister of Canada (1984)	Brian Mulroney
20th Ministry - First Government of Pierre Trudeau
Cabinet Posts (3)
Predecessor	Office	Successor
Edgar Benson	Minister of Finance (1972–1975)	Donald Stovel Macdonald
Pierre Trudeau	Minister of Justice (1968–1972)	Otto Lang
cont'd from 19th Min.	Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs (1968)	Ron Basford
19th Ministry - Government of Lester B. Pearson
Cabinet Posts (3)
Predecessor	Office	Successor
legislation enacted	Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs (1967–1968)	cont'd into 20th Min.
Guy Favreau	Registrar General of Canada (1967) styled as Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs	legislation enacted
	Minister without Portfolio (1965–1967)

Preceded by: Pierre Trudeau	Prime Minister of Canada 1984	Succeeded by: Brian Mulroney
Preceded by: Brian Mulroney	Leader of the Opposition 1984–1990	Succeeded by: Herb Gray
Preceded by: Pierre Trudeau	Leader of the Liberal Party 1984–1990	Succeeded by: Jean Chrétien

Preceded by: Egan Chambers	Member for St. Lawrence—St. George 1962–1966	Succeeded by: Abolished
Preceded by: none	Member for Ottawa—Carleton 1966–1976	Succeeded by: Jean Pigott
Preceded by: Bill Clarke	Member for Vancouver Quadra 1984–1993	Succeeded by: Ted McWhinney

Prime Ministers of Canada
Macdonald | Mackenzie | Abbott | Thompson | Bowell | Tupper | Laurier | Borden | Meighen | King | Meighen | King | Bennett | King | St. Laurent | Diefenbaker | Pearson | Trudeau | Clark | Trudeau | Turner | Mulroney | Campbell | Chrétien | Martin | Harper

Ministers of Finance of Canada
Galt | Rose | Hincks | Tilley | Cartwright | Tilley | McLelan | Tupper | Foster | Fielding | White | Drayton | Fielding | Robb | Bennett | Robb | Dunning | Bennett | Rhodes | Dunning | Ralston | Ilsley | Abbott | Harris | Fleming | Nowlan | Gordon | Sharp | Benson | Turner | Macdonald | Chrétien | Crosbie | MacEachen | Lalonde | Wilson | Mazankowski | Loiselle | Martin | Manley | Goodale | Flaherty

	Leaders of the Liberal Party of Canada (edit):
Mackenzie | Blake | Laurier | King | St. Laurent | Pearson | Trudeau | Turner | Chrétien | Martin

Persondata
NAME	Turner, John Napier
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	17th Prime Minister of Canada (1984)
DATE OF BIRTH	June 7, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH	Richmond, Surrey, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH