John Turner

The title of this article is ambiguous. Additional meanings are listed under John Turner (disambiguation) .

John Turner (2018)

John Napier Turner PC , CC , QC (born June 7, 1929 in Richmond upon Thames , Surrey , England , † September 18, 2020 in Toronto , Ontario ) was a Canadian politician . He was the 17th Prime Minister of Canada from June 30, 1984 to September 17, 1984 . His 79-day tenure is the second-shortest in Canadian history after that of Charles Tupper . From 1968 to 1975 it belonged to the federal government of Pierre Trudeauamong others as Minister of Finance and Minister of Justice. Turner was a member of the Liberal Party , which he chaired from 1984 to 1990.

Early years

Turner was born in England. When his father died in 1932, he moved to Canada with his mother and siblings. His mother, the economist Phyllis Gregory, worked in Ottawa for the Canadian federal government. She married Frank Mackenzie Ross , who later became the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia . John Turner trained at private schools in Ottawa, and in 1945 began studying law at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver .

Turner was a gifted athlete . In the late 1940s he was one of the best sprinters in Canada, running national records over 100 and 200 yards . He qualified for the 1948 Summer Olympics in London , but a knee injury prevented him from participating. In 1949 he received a Rhodes Scholarship and continued his studies at Magdalen College at the University of Oxford . There he made friends with the future Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser . In 1952/53 he studied temporarily at the University of Paris .

In 1954, Turner was admitted to the bar and then worked for the Stikeman Elliott law firm in Montreal . At a party his stepfather held to mark the opening of his new residence in May 1959, Turner danced so extensively with Britain's Princess Margaret that it was rumored that the two were romantically involved. In 1963 he married Geills McCrae Kilgour, the great niece of the writer John McCrae .

MP and Minister

Turner ran in the general election in 1962 and won the constituency of Saint-Laurent-Saint-Georges in Montreal. In the winter of 1965 he was on vacation with his wife in Barbados . On the beach he noticed that former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker , who was staying at the same hotel, had gotten into a dangerous current. Turner jumped into the water and pulled Diefenbaker ashore, thereby saving his life.

Prime Minister Lester Pearson appointed Turner to the Cabinet in December 1965, initially as Minister without Portfolio . From December 1967 he was Minister for Consumers and Business Relations. After Pearson announced his impending resignation, a party conference was held in April 1968 to elect a new chairman. Turner was the youngest of nine candidates. He reached the fourth ballot, but was ultimately defeated by Pierre Trudeau , who appointed him Minister of Justice three months later. Since his constituency in Montreal had been divided, Turner represented the constituency of Ottawa-Carleton since the 1968 general election .

As Attorney General, Turner led criminal law reform and played an important role in tackling the October Crisis in 1970 . In January 1972 he was appointed Minister of Finance. After losing the majority in November 1972, the Liberal government was forced to lower taxes and increase pensions. This enabled them to win the 1974 election, but the measures led to high inflation. Because of this, Turner had to introduce wage and price controls in 1975.

In September 1975, Turner unexpectedly announced his resignation. He gave no particular reason, but the media suspected that personal conflicts with Trudeau had led to this move. In February 1976 Turner also gave up his parliamentary mandate. In the following years he worked for the renowned law firm McMillan Binch in Toronto , where he specialized in corporate law. The new job allowed him to spend more time with his four growing children.

prime minister

In February 1984, Trudeau announced his impending resignation as opinion polls indicated that the Liberals would lose the election with him at the helm. Turner decided to get back into politics. At the party congress on June 16, 1984, he was elected party chairman, where he prevailed against Jean Chrétien in the second ballot . He was sworn in as Prime Minister on June 30th, and ten days later he called for an early election .

The Liberal election campaign prior to the 1984 general election was poorly organized and was unable to offset the ruling party's massive unpopularity. As one of his last official acts, Pierre Trudeau filled over 200 well-paid posts (senators, judges, board members of state companies) with loyal party members. These appointments sparked outrage across the political spectrum. Turner could easily have canceled these appointments, but made 70 other appointments himself. Brian Mulroney , leader of the opposition Progressive Conservative Party , confronted Turner with this fact during the televised debates and left him in dire straits.

On September 4, 1984, the Liberals suffered the worst defeat in their history. They only won 40 seats and lost over a third of their previous voters. Turner himself was elected in the Vancouver Quadra constituency, but eleven government ministers were voted out. On September 17, 1984, Turner resigned as head of government after only 79 days in office. Since the parliament had not had a session since taking office, he was never able to present a new bill.

Opposition leader

After the devastating election defeat, Turner became opposition leader. The Liberals could do little in the House of Commons , but they used their majority in the Senate to disrupt Mulroney's government work. Party members repeatedly questioned Turner's claim to leadership. In November 1986, however, it was confirmed with over three quarters of the delegate's votes. From 1987, the values ​​in the opinion polls rose again significantly.

Before the general election in 1988 , Turner led a far more aggressive campaign than four years earlier. In particular, he vehemently opposed the government's proposed free trade agreement with the United States . The Liberals more than doubled their number of seats, but they did not succeed in ousting the Progressive Conservatives. In May 1989 he announced his impending resignation as party chairman, and Jean Chrétien succeeded him in June 1990.

Withdrawal from politics

Turner kept his House of Commons mandate until September 1993, but stayed largely in the background and then withdrew completely from politics. He resumed his previous practice as a lawyer and worked for the law firm Miller Thomson in Toronto. He has served on the boards of several Canadian companies. In 2004 he headed the Canadian election observer delegation for the presidential election in Ukraine .

See also

• 23. Canadian Cabinet

literature

• Greg Newton: Reign of Error: The Inside Story of John Turner's Troubled Leadership . McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Toronto 1988, ISBN 978-0-07-549693-9 .
• Jack Cahill: John Turner: The Long Run . McClelland & Stewart, Toronto 1984, ISBN 978-0-7710-1872-5 .

Web links

• John Turner - biographical information on the website of the Canadian Parliament (English)
• John Turner ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
• TV and radio documentaries on John Turner

Individual evidence

1. ↑ NewsAlert: Former PM John Turner dead at 91
2. ↑ Canadian Press NewsAlert: Former prime minister John Turner dead at 91
3. ↑ John Turner in the UBC Sports Hall of Fame ( Memento December 11, 2008 on the Internet Archive ), accessed July 26, 2009
4. ^ Former Prime Minister John Turner to be inducted into UBC Sports Hall of Fame ( December 11, 2008 memento in the Internet Archive ), universitysport.ca, accessed July 26, 2009
5. ↑ Destiny and determination to lead , CBC Television, June 16, 1984
6. ↑ A future prime minister rescues a former prime minister , First Among Equals, Library and Archives Canada, called 26 July 2009