John Turner obit

John Turner: Former Canadian prime minister dies at 91

 

He was not on the list.

Former Canadian Prime Minister John Turner, who was in office for just 79 days and led his Liberal Party to a huge defeat in 1984, has died aged 91.

A lawyer by training, he served as justice and then finance minister from 1968-1975. He resigned after arguments with party leader Pierre Trudeau.

Turner resumed his legal work and nine years later won the party leadership.

He called an election and then presided over what observers say was one of the worst campaigns in Canadian history.

His gaffes combined with growing public fatigue with the Liberals, who had been in power for 20 of the previous 21 years, resulted in his party falling from 135 seats in the 282-member House of Commons to just 40.

The Conservatives, under the leadership of Brian Mulroney, swept to power with 211 seats.

Despite the result, Turner hung onto his post. In the 1988 election, Turner was a strong opponent of a proposed free trade agreement with the US but lost again to Mr Mulroney, but not as badly.

He resigned as a Liberal leader in 1990.

As justice minister, he defended reforms to Canada's Criminal Code that paved the way for LGBTQ rights and legal abortions. But in the finance ministry he faced economic pressures due to the global oil crisis.

His 79-day tenure as prime minister is the second shortest in the country's history.

Turner died at home in Toronto on Friday night, Marc Kealey, a former aide speaking on behalf of his relatives told the Montreal Gazette. He is survived by his wife Geills and four children.

Turner was educated at Ashbury College and St Patrick's College, Ottawa (senior matriculation). He enrolled at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 1945 at age 16 where he was a member of the UBC chapter of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and was among Canada's outstanding track sprinters in the late 1940s. He held the Canadian record for the men's 100-yard dash and qualified for the 1948 London Olympics, but a bad knee kept him from competing. He graduated from UBC with a BA (Honours) in 1949.

On July 25, 1958, a ball was hosted by Turner's mother and stepfather (in the latter's role of Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia), in honor of Princess Margaret at HMCS Discovery, the Canadian navy's land station in Vancouver. Turner danced with Princess Margaret, one year his junior, and they sat out talking, refusing requests to return to supper. This was the first time that Turner received significant press attention in Canada. Further meetings between them during Margaret's three week official visit to Canada led to considerable speculation about whether the two would become a serious couple. Contemporary press reports suggested there was some consternation about the reports among British officials, but their Canadian counterparts were more relaxed.

A year later, in September 1959, press attention returned when reports circulated that Turner had been a recent guest at Balmoral in August where discussions had taken place concerning marriage between the pair; that he had also paid a secret visit to see her in April and that his parents had commented on their close friendship during their visit to Scotland in August.

According to contemporary press reports, Buckingham Palace refused to engage with the rumors. A spokesperson for Margaret said the April meeting was not a secret and they had nothing to say officially about any of the reports. Turner was quoted as saying, "I have nothing whatsoever to say about these reports.

Turner practised law before being elected as a member of Parliament in the 1962 federal election. He served in the cabinet of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau as minister of justice and attorney general from 1968 to 1972, and minister of finance from 1972 to 1975. As a cabinet minister, Turner came to be known as a leader of the Business Liberal faction of the Liberal Party. Amid a global recession and the prospect of having to implement unpopular wage and price controls, Turner resigned from his position in 1975.