(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.
He was born in
Richmond ,
Surrey ,
England , 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 the
University Of British Columbia (B.A. Honours),
Oxford University , (
Rhodes Scholar , B.A., Bachelor of Civil Law), and the
University Of Paris (the Sorbonne). In 1948, he qualified for Canada's
Olympic team as a sprinter, but could not compete because of an injury.
In 1958, he spent the evening dancing with
Princess Margaret at
HMCS Discovery in Vancouver Harbour. The event, was hosted by Frank Ross,
Lieutenant-Governor Of British Columbia and Turner's step-father. He became the subject of press coverage in Britain and Canada for a year and a half, and was described in the British press as a "secret caller" at
Clarence House .
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 .
He served in the 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. During that time, he oversaw the introduction of computers to keep track of cases, the end of partisan judicial appointments, implementation of the
War Measures Act during the
October Crisis , and the controversial Bill C-150, which decriminalized abortion and homosexuality as well as softening divorce laws.
Turner then served as
Minister Of Finance from 1972 until 1975, when he surprisingly resigned from cabinet. Later, Turner would reveal he was trying to implement wage and price controls to combat
Stagflation , which Trudeau had opposed since he had campaigned against their use. Turner and Trudeau had disagreed on many issues, including Bill C-150, and the use of the War Measures Act.
From 1975 to 1984, Turner worked as a corporate lawyer on
Bay Street , and occasionally made speeches on political issues. He also published a newsletter which was highly critical of the Liberals' economic policy. 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.
When Prime Minister Trudeau retired, Turner re-entered politics. He 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 .
Turner promised to modernize the party, starting by getting rid of many Trudeau-era staff and supporters. He sought to return to the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament (MP) for
Vancouver Quadra , to show his support for ending Western alienation.
Although Trudeau, to outrage, would appoint over 200 Liberals to patronage positions in his final days in office, Turner was persusaded by internal polls that he was far ahead of the Tories, and postponed a tour by
Queen Elizabeth II to
Call An Election . It was after the writ was dropped that Turner appointed Liberal MPs to the Senate and other patronage positions. Turner cited a written agreement he had made with Trudeau, claiming that if Trudeau had done it, the Liberals would have almost certainly been defeated in the next election. The fact he had called an election anyway, however, would hurt his argument. Making the patronage appointments also nullified his past attempts to distance himself from Trudeau, causing Turner to take the blame for problems carried over from the Trudeau government.
Early in the campaign, Turner appeared rusty and old fashioned. He used used outmoded slang when he spoke of "make work programs", a concept from the 1970s that had been replaced by the less patronizing "job creation programs". He was also caught infamously patting Liberal Party President
Iona Campagnolo on the rear end, causing a minor uproar among
Feminists who saw it as being condescending.
Progressive Conservative Party leader
Brian Mulroney remarked in speeches that "While Turner was dancing with Princess Margaret, I was driving a truck."
During the televised debate, Turner had planned to attack Mulroney over the patronage machine that the latter had set up in anticipation of victory. However, Mulroney successfully turned the tables by pointing to Turner's recent patronage appointments. When Turner said, "I had no option" except to keep the appointments, Mulroney famously responded, "You had an option, sir; you could have said 'no.'" Many observers considered the debate as the turning point in the campaign.
During the last few weeks, there was disaster upon disaster for the Liberals. He spoke on several occasions of "make work programs", a concept from the 1970s that had been replaced by the less patronizing "job creation programs". This and other gaffes caused voters to see him as a relic from the past.
Turner discovered in the latter half of the campaign that the Liberals' electoral hopes were poor in their traditional stronghold, Quebec. The The Liberals had won the most seats in that province in every election but one since 1896. The party relied on Trudeau's appeal, patronage, and dislike of the Conservatives for victory in the recent elections. Trudeau himself did not campaign for Turner, instead only showing up to support some local 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.
On
July 4 , Turner and the Liberals were swept from power in a gigantic Tory landslide. The Liberals were cut down to 40 seats, the fewest in the party's history, against 211 for the Tories. 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 did not have time to implement any legislative initiatives.
Turner managed to win 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 NDP were not far behind with 30 seats, and leader
Ed Broadbent consistently outpolled Turner and even Mulroney. The Liberals responded by using their
Senate majority to threten 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 Cartoonist s 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 be revealed that Mulroney planned to call an election anyway.
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 relativly calm campaign they had been running, and go with in pro-FTA ads, stopped Turner's momentum.
The Liberals doubled their representation to 83 seats to emerge as the main 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. Despite his party's improved standing, the results were considered a disappointment for Turner, after polls in mid-campaign predicted a Liberal government. The election loss seemed to confirm Turner's fate, and he eventually
Resigned In 1990 , and was succeeded by Chrétien.
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 portrayed himself as a protectionist and anti-Free Trade crusader in 1988, he was largely pro-business and favoured smaller government and tax cuts for corporations during his six years as Liberal Party leader.
Although Chretien was portrayed as a left-wing Liberal in his contest against both Turner and
Paul Martin (who had the support of many of Turner's followers in the
1990 Liberal Leadership Convention ), the Chretien government proved to be fiscally conservative. The business Liberal wing of the party eclipsed the "left" during the 1990s with its authority being consolidated under future prime minister
Paul Martin . The philosophically left-wing elements of the party, who embraced Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chretien instead of Turner, were
Moved Into The Party's Periphery after Martin was elected Liberal leader in December 2003. After the
2006 Election and Martin's departure, it remains to be seen
Which Direction The Party Will Move In .
Turner is a member of several Boards of Directors for several large Canadian companies. In late 2004, Turner headed the delegation of Canadian election monitors to
Ukraine who helped monitor the
Ukrainian Presidential Runoff Vote of December 26. The monitoring was the first mission of the new
Canada Corps .
In 1994, he was made a Companion of the
Order Of Canada .
