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John Napier Turner (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.
He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, and emigrated to Canada as a baby in 1932. 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).
He was married in 1963 to Geills McCrae Kilgour (b. 1937) and has one daughter and three sons. He practiced law in Toronto, Ontario and was elected as a member of Parliament in 1962. He served in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Lester Pearson in various capacities, most notably as Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs. When Pearson retired Turner ran in the race to succeed him, finishing third at the 1968 Liberal leadership convention behind the winner Pierre Trudeau. Turner served in Trudeau's cabinet as Minister of Justice during the October Crisis and then served as Minister of Finance until 1975 when he resigned to protest the implementation of wage and price controls.
From 1975 to 1984, Turner worked as a corporate lawyer on Bay Street but occasionally made speeches on political issues. When Pierre Trudeau resigned as Liberal leader the first time in 1979, Turner announced 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 serve as Prime Minister until 1984.
When Prime Minister Trudeau retired, John Turner re-entered politics and was elected leader of his party and became Prime Minister, defeating Jean Chrétien at the June 1984 Liberal leadership convention.
John Turner served as Prime Minister of Canada for only a few months. Plagued by controversy over a series of patronage appointments he made shortly after taking office in fulfilment of an agreement he had made with Trudeau, he was defeated by Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservative Party in the 1984 federal election. His period in office was thus almost entirely consumed by the election.
He would remain leader of the opposition, losing to Mulroney again in the election of 1988. In the latter election, Turner campaigned vigorously against the (then) proposed Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, arguing its adoption would equate the entire abandonment of Canada's political sovereignty to the United States.
Chrétien resigned from Parliament in 1985 but led a long and bitter backroom struggle to depose Turner which finally succeeded when Turner resigned as party leader in 1990. The ongoing and often open unpopularity of Turner within his own party led to many Canadian editorial cartoonists to always draw him with a back stabbed full of knives. In 1994 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.
In early December 2004 it was announced that Turner will head the delegation of Canadian election monitors to Ukraine who will help monitor the Ukrainian presidential runoff vote on December 26. This new runoff vote comes after the disputed results of the first runoff, held on November 21. This monitoring will be the first mission of the newly unveiled Canada Corps, designed by Prime Minister Paul Martin as a uniquely Canadian contribution to the stability of the globe.
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Preceded by:
Bill Clarke, PC
| Member of Parliament for Vancouver Quadra
(1984-1993)
| Succeeded by:
Ted McWhinney, Liberal
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Preceded by:
federal riding created in 1966
| Member of Parliament for Ottawa—Carleton
(1968-1976)
| Succeeded by:
Jean Pigott, PC
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Preceded by:
Egan Chambers, PC
| Member of Parliament for St. Lawrence—St. George
(1962-1968)
| Succeeded by:
federal riding abolished in 1966
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