John Turner was born in
Richmond England on June 7th, 1929 to
and English father and a Canadian
mother.. When he was 3 his father died
and his mother Phyllis decided to return
to Canada to bring up John. They at
first lived in Rossland British Columbia
but she worked her way up in the civil
service and was promoted to a position
which required that they move to Ottawa.
John was a bright and
hard working student and when his mother
was remarried to Frank Mackenzie Ross, a
Vancouver businessman, the family moved
west once again to Vancouver where John
was accepted at the University of
British Columbia. While attending UBC he
distinguished himself as an outstanding
athlete and earned a Political Science
degree with honours, graduating in 1949.
He continued on with his academic career
after winning a Rhodes scholarship to
study law at Oxford where he earned his
BA in jurisprudence in 1951, his
Bachelor of Civil Law in 1952 and his MA
in 1957. In that period he also enrolled
in graduate studies in French Civil Law
at the Sorbonne in Paris.
He returned to Canada to
study for his bar exam and in 1954
joined the Montreal law firm of Stikeman
and Elliott after passing his Quebec
bar. In 1957 the Liberals were
looking for young up and coming people
to help regenerate the party and C.D.
Howe recruited Turner to work in he
party machine during the election. By
1962 he was ready to run for office
himself and chose the riding of
St-Laurent-St-Georges in Quebec which he
won.
Turner was affiliated
with a group of new Liberal MP's who
were striving to reform the party and
Canada and quickly earned the nickname
of the young Turks. He was recognized by
Lester Pearson as a talented, brilliant
personality and when Pearson became
Prime Minister he made Turner a Cabinet
Minster without portfolio in 1965 and
Minister of Consumer and Corporate
Affairs in 1967. 1968 was a pivotal year
with the emergence of both Turner and
another young MP from Quebec, Pierre
Trudeau, as the shinning starts of the
parties future. When Pearson decided to
resign, Turner quickly threw his hat
into the ring and in an exciting and
tense leadership race lost to Trudeau.
He was made Minister of
Justice, which was to position that
Trudeau had held before becoming Prime
Minister and while in that position
reformed the Criminal Code in 1970,
appoint the first Jewish judge to the
Supreme Court of Canada, created the Law
Reform Commission in 1971, oversaw the
actions of the department during the FLQ
crisis while the War Measures Act was
used to fight the actions of the
terrorists.
By 1972 the
main challenge the government faced had
become the economy and the Ministry of
Finance had become the graveyard of many
a prominent and rising stars in the
Liberal Party. His tenure began with the
Liberals in a minority position in
Parliament and he managed to stickhandle
through the partisan battles until 1974.
Trudeau and the Liberals won the 74
election by opposing wage and price
controls but once in power, Trudeau
switched horses and decided to bring
them in. Turner under growing pressure
in his position as Finance Minister and
with no other interesting options
available to him decided to leave
politics and in 1979 joined the Toronto
firm of McMillan Binch.
In 1979 the Liberals were
defeated and Trudeau stepped down.
Turner was asked to run for the
leadership but seeing the fortunes of
the party at low ebb and a potentially a
long hard battle to rebuild it at hand,
he decided against it. Through the
twists of political fate, Joe Clark was
defeated during a vote of confidence,
Trudeau returned as leader and the
Liberals won another majority mandate.
Throughout 1983-84, the
Liberals recognized that Trudeau was
going to resign before the next election
and many supports of Turners tried to
lay the groundwork for his return as
leader. Although he was viewed by many
within the party and across the country
as the natural successor to Trudeau, the
Chretien forces put up a strong fight
and the battle between the two split the
party just enough to make Turners win
bitter sweet.
Upon become
leader of the Liberal party in 1984 and
hence Prime Minister he faced a nation
which, except for Clark's brief
interlude, had been governed by the
Liberals for almost 20 years. The polls
took a big upswing for Turner and the
Liberals during the leadership
convention and right after he entered
office. He was face with the choice of
gambling that his popularity as new
leader might help him win a quick
election call or he could wait and try
to put together a new plan and rally the
troops while hoping that the poll
numbers for him would not evaporate. He
chose to go to people early.
The campaign was a
difficult one with a still tired Turner,
from the leadership campaign, out on the
road again. He was also saddled with the
negative issues of the Trudeau years and
the desire by many for a change. ne of
the main issues of the election were
some patronage appointments which were
made and which he approved of which
although traditional and in line with
past practices and standards, did not go
down well with the electorate. The
Conservatives jumped on these
appointments and made them into a banner
of corrupt Liberal practices. Turner and
the Liberals were badly beaten.
After the
election Turner undertook to rebuild the
party and worked tirelessly in
redefining, reinventing, re-energizing
and refilling the coffers of the party.
In 1988 Mulroney called and election and
the real only issue was that of the
North America Free Trade Agreement. The
debate which had stretched back time in
Canadian political history to before
confederation once again emerged as the
question of the day. The debates between
Turner and Mulroney were fierce and
personal. The Liberals once again were
defeated and Turner worked for another 2
years as opposition leader but resigned
in 1990.
John Turner retired from
politics after that but had returned to
help when his country has called such as
the 2004 election observation duties in
the Ukraine. He is looked upon by many
as a potentially great Prime Minister
whose timing was unfortunate and who
never really had the full opportunity to
fulfill his talents or ambitions.
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