Prime Minister John Turner: 1929-2020
September 20, 2020 11:01 AM   Subscribe

The man who "almost married" Princess Margaret, who saved Prime Minister John Diefenbaker from drowning, who served in what could arguably be called one of the most politically talented federal Cabinets in Canadian history (the Cabinet of Prime Minister Lester Pearson that included three future prime ministers--Pierre Trudeau, Jean Chrétien and John Turner and other political heavyweights such as Allan MacEachen, Mitchell Sharp and Judy LaMarsh) and who will known as one of Canada' shortest-serving prime ministers has died. Prime Minster John Turner was 91.

Turner was a pivotal (and often divisive) figure in so many significant points of Canadian history that the list is almost too long to compile, but they include the Meech Lake and Free Trade debates, the imposition of the War Measures Act during the FLQ Crisis, the 1970s economic inflation, and the reformation of reforms Canada's Criminal Code (which led to the decriminalization of same-sex acts and the decriminalization of abortion).

Although he could appear blustery, his colleagues and political opponents (including the writer of this piece who is not in any way aligned with Turner's political viewpoints) are all quick to praise his civility and the way he handled himself as a parliamentarian.
posted by sardonyx (13 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
I've got to admit: I'd never even heard of him before he died, and that feels bad as a fan of Canadian history. Thank you for sharing all of this.
posted by Canageek at 2:06 PM on September 20, 2020


I'm of the generation of Canadians whose political views were heavily influenced by the people in that Pearson cabinet, and its Loyal Opposition.
posted by angiep at 2:09 PM on September 20, 2020 [1 favorite]


Globe and Mail obituary: John Turner, PM for 79 days, was old Liberalism’s darling and its final, flawed champion.
John Turner, who became Canada’s 17th prime minister on June 30, 1984, was once “the golden boy” of the federal Liberal Party.

... His tribulations as leader of the Liberal Party obscured his earlier accomplishments as a reform-oriented minister of justice who pushed legislation to protect human rights and the Official Languages Act through Parliament, as a minister of consumer and corporate affairs who stuck up for the little guy versus big business and as a prudent minister of finance.

During the October Crisis of 1970 when Quebec separatist radicals kidnapped a British diplomat and murdered a provincial cabinet minister, it fell to Turner as attorney general to trigger the War Measures Act, a Draconian suspension of civil liberties. But Turner was the most reluctant of all of the ministers surrounding Trudeau on the Security and Intelligence Committee to suspend Canada’s democratic norms and he moved quickly to replace the War Measures Act with the Public Order (Temporary Measures) Act, a much less drastic law.
His defeat in 1984:
When Turner returned to electoral politics, almost a decade later in 1984, the political environment that greeted him had been fundamentally altered, especially by 24-hour television news cycle, and a decline in the salience of Parliament. In his previous term, he had gained a reputation as a “House of Commons man” steeped in its traditions while defending the importance the individual MP. When he returned to Parliament, he was appalled by the lack of respect for the institution. As Clarkson and McCall noted, Turner “didn’t seem to realize the world had altered and Canada, the Liberal Party included, had to adjust.”

Turner was never able to make the adjustment. His rustiness and discomfort first surfaced in the leadership contest with his former cabinet colleague Jean Chrétien. Although he won and succeeded Pierre Trudeau as prime minister, Turner dissolved Parliament almost immediately, and triggered what turned out to be a disastrous election. As a result, his term as prime minister lasted only 79 days.

... His was a meteoric career that first soared and but then fizzled downwards after the 1984 defeat. He struggled in politics as leader of the Opposition for almost six years, a tenure marked by disloyalty in his caucus, a determined attempt to dump him through the leadership review process and finally, a coup attempt in the middle of the 1988 election campaign. His reputation and possibly his party were saved only by a 90-second exchange with then prime minister, Brian Mulroney, during the televised leaders debate in 1988. It changed the course of the “Free Trade” election and prevented a Liberal rout.
Also discusses his early career, when he seemed to have a charmed life:
In his early years, Turner was a success in whatever he attempted. As a high school student he was at the top of his class, at university he set records in track and field and qualified for the 1948 Olympics Games. He won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, the most prestigious educational award in the Commonwealth. Then it was off to the Sorbonne to improve his French and back to Canada as a lawyer, all launching pads for what appeared to be a charmed and fulfilling life, until he reached the top, following a successful bid for the leadership of his party on his second try.
But he didn't come from a privileged background at all:
John Turner was born in Richmond, Surrey June 7, 1929. His mother Phillis Gregory, an economics graduate student, had interrupted doctoral studies in Philadelphia to marry Leonard Turner, a somewhat mysterious English adventurer and gunsmith, and moved to England. But shortly after his sister Brenda was born four years later, his father died suddenly. His mother, then 29 and penniless, packed up the family and returned to her family home in Rossland, a mining town in the interior of British Columbia. [She became an economist and senior civil servant.]
posted by russilwvong at 2:54 PM on September 20, 2020 [2 favorites]


"Canada's Kennedy," though Turner was smarter (and more handsome) than any two Kennedy brothers combined. Requiescat in pace.
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:22 PM on September 20, 2020 [1 favorite]


who saved Prime Minister John Diefenbaker from drowning

Huh. Wow. Thanks for including that bit of trivia!

I used to work in the building where the law firm that John Turner worked at in his later years is located. I rode the elevator with him a bunch of times. He was quite friendly with everyone. The first time I encountered him I was on the way back from grabbing a coffee with a coworker. After Turner got off on his floor and the doors closed, we turned to each other and said, almost in unison, "Was that John Turner?"

It's an interesting bit of "What if..." to speculate on what would be different if that 1984 election had turned out in his favour.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:32 PM on September 20, 2020 [5 favorites]


I think I can easily say the Free Trade election was the election that I've lived through that has most fundamentally altered Canada, and not necessarily in ways for the better.

It's funny, but I've never heard the Kennedy comparisons until this week. I deliberately left those out of my post, because I figure we don't need to frame Canadian history and politicians through an American viewpoint, although reconsidering it now, maybe it would help put Turner into perspective for non-Canadian MeFites.

I know the reports say that the death of Turner's father left the family in a tough position, but I still think John had to have benefited from a privileged family life. His mother must have had some kinds of means because women in her era just didn't really have the opportunity to go to university (unless it was something like teacher's college), let alone engage in doctoral studies in economics. Also, as the CBC describes it, his step-father ("industrialist and future B.C. lieutenant governor Frank Ross") seemed to do okay for himself.

angiep's comment really hit the nail on the head. That political generation and its small-L liberal (social) values really seemed to define how the country (or the more small-P progressive parts of the country) saw itself. I'm not sure we'll experience something similar again--or at least not in the near future. That's not to say that the Pearson politicians got everything right or that they didn't mess up politically or that they weren't ever on the wrong sides of some issues, but they did, in general, seem to have a vision for a better, more inclusive, more accepting country, and I think overall, the country was better for it.
posted by sardonyx at 4:36 PM on September 20, 2020 [3 favorites]


Sorry, sardonyx. I meant no offense. Turner's political career and public service had an impact in the US, and I think I first heard that '60s comparison back in the '80s (during the Iona Campagnolo non-scandal reporting) down here.
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:32 PM on September 20, 2020


Absolutely no need to apologize, Iris Gambol, as I said, I think framing it in that way adds a perspective I left out, so that's only a positive thing. It's especially helpful to non-Canadian MeFites, and I'll admit, I wasn't thinking about them when I put up the post. I figured the topic might possibly of interest to Canadians, but that it wouldn't have much reach beyond Canada's borders. I'm always happy to be proven wrong about stuff like that.

I was actually hoping somebody dug up some shots of him playing tennis in Washington, but I didn't find any (in an admittedly brief search).

Turner recalled an era when he was finance minister and prime minister Pierre Trudeau didn’t “get along” with president Richard Nixon. So Turner made trips to Washington every three months to meet his counterpart, George Shultz. Turner and Shultz were usually armed with an agenda cleared by their bosses, Trudeau and Nixon.

“We’d play a couple of sets of tennis on the White House courts, have a couple of scotches, go up and have dinner with the president – Nixon, myself and Schultz.”

They would reach agreement on most items and do it not through “bureaucratic overkill” but rather, “on a handshake,” said Turner.

“We’ve got to do more of that with the United States. On a regular basis. On a first-name basis.

posted by sardonyx at 6:13 PM on September 20, 2020


Thanks to Air Farce, I knew who John Turner was, even though I was only about 7.

That said, I'm deeply ashamed to say that I supported Mulroney at the time. I had no idea what his policies were, I just liked his face and chin. I'm glad seven-year old me didn't have a vote.
posted by jb at 9:47 PM on September 20, 2020 [1 favorite]


I was just nicely politically engaged when he became PM, though too busy to much notice as his entire tenure largely overlapped with my time as a new recruit in the Canadian Military College system of the era. Wow, that takes me back.
posted by bcd at 2:49 AM on September 21, 2020


Not really enough for a post of it's own, but Aline Chrétien, Jean's wife, passed away last week as well.
posted by bcd at 2:53 AM on September 21, 2020 [1 favorite]


2009: article, True Grit - affectionate, funny profile of Turner at 80; History can wait. John Turner has other things on his mind at the moment, like the papers that have accumulated on his office desk while he has been canoeing the French River in the Canadian Shield country east of Georgian Bay.
2011: book, Elusive Destiny: The Political Vocation of John Napier Turner by Carleton University historian, Paul Litt; Justice and John Turner: What Might Have Been (Elusive Destiny book recommendation): Litt makes a strong case for Turner as possibly Canada’s best ever Justice Minister.
2012: The Rt. Hon. John Turner has become the first Canadian politician to be awarded The Royal Canadian Geographical Society’s Gold Medal; RCGS CEO John Geiger paid tribute to Turner’s decades of public service noting he had been “elected MP in three difference ridings in three different provinces, itself a geographic feat of sorts.”
2015: Honouring water and environmental leadership, Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority launches inaugural Rt. Hon. John Turner award w/scholarship. WWF-Canada offers Congratulations to Rt. Hon. John Turner, a long-time fundraiser, donor, and former board member, on the NPCA award (w/ handmade, engraved paddle):
People may know him as the Prime Minister of Canada, but might not know that he has worked tirelessly to champion conservation issues across the country, especially issues related to water and the Far North. Mr. Turner played a role in creating the largest freshwater reserve in the world, persuading the premier of Ontario at the time to cede the lakebed for the Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area. He stood with the Gwichin people at a press conference in Whitehorse, successfully calling for protection of the calving area of the Porcupine Caribou Herd in Alaska; and he gave an inspirational address to WWF leaders from Arctic nations when they met in Toronto to tackle global warming and oil and gas issues. [...] WWF-Canada applauds Prime Minister Turner for his dedication for the promotion, education and protection of Canada’s freshwater resources.
2019: Canada’s Northern Light: John Turner at 90. The June birthday gala's co-chair was former Turner staffer Marc Kealey; in July's Niagara and the political legacy of the Rt. Hon. John N. Turner, Kealey wrote that his old boss was "the only Canadian to have paddled every lake and river in Canada – an accomplishment that has been recognized by the Royal Geographic Society."
2020: Former PM John Turner and the Arctic Youth Corp; There’s one Canadian prime minister, though, who not only canoed the breathtaking Nahanni, but every single river that empties into the Arctic Ocean. You can be forgiven if Pierre Trudeau immediately springs to mind. While Trudeau was indeed an avid canoeist – and did in fact paddle some of the Nahanni – it is actually John Turner who holds this honour. (author's 2017 blog post)
2020: WWF-Canada remembers John Turner; Former Prime Minister and former WWF-Canada Director leaves important environmental legacy; “Mr. Turner had a genuinely deep feeling for the beauty and geography of our country,” said Monte Hummel, WWF-Canada’s current president emeritus and CEO during John Turner’s service on the board. “As with so many things, he was busy behind-the-scenes and instrumental in positive changes for nature — far beyond what is on the public record.” [...] Hummel counted Turner as a personal friend as well as a professional colleague in conservation.

“We travelled together often, even dog-sledded on Great Slave Lake. I remember him saying that Canada is one of the last places in the world where you can still hear your own heartbeat in winter. John loved our country for all the right reasons, and I’ll miss him dearly. All Canadians have lost one of nature’s true patriots and protectors.”
posted by Iris Gambol at 9:58 PM on September 21, 2020 [2 favorites]


I had a chance encounter in an Ottawa airport and shook hands with the man while he was the PM.

(What an innocent time!)
posted by mazola at 9:47 AM on September 22, 2020 [1 favorite]


« Older The People Machine   |   "Wings are a meal, especially in Buffalo, make no... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments