John Turner Biography

John Turner was born on June 7, 1929, in Surrey, England, to Leonard Turner and Phyllis Gregory. When his father died in 1932, he moved to Canada with his Canadian-born mother, and settled in British Columbia.

His mother remarried in 1945, to Frank Mackenzie Ross, who later served as Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia, and the family relocated to Vancouver. Turner was educated at Ashbury College and St Patrick's College, Ottawa.

John Turner enrolled at the University of British Columbia in 1945. A terrific track sprinter, he held the Canadian 100 meters record, but a bad knee kept him out of the 1948 London Olympics.

At Oxford, Roger Bannister, who first broke the four-minute barrier in the mile, was his track and field teammate, while future Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser was his class mate.

John Turner academic brilliance continued as he pursued doctoral studies at the University of Paris, from 1952 to 1953. While attending the University of British Columbia (UBC), he had become a member of the fraternity, Beta Theta Pi.

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 people to help regenerate the party and C.D. Howe, the Liberal M.P, recruited John Turner to work in the 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 He was nominated as a candidate and won the election in June.

As one of “The Young Turks" advocating reforms in party policy, he joined PM Pearson’s cabinet and was initially not given a portfolio but in 1967, he was made the Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs.

When Pearson retired, John Turner ran to succeed him at the 1968 leadership convention. He was the youngest of the dozen leadership candidates, and finished the ballot third behind Pierre Trudeau and Robert Winters.

In 1975, he resigned from cabinet due to personality conflicts with Trudeau who reversed his election promise and wanted to implement wage and price controls. Turner would rather quit than carry out that proposal.

John Turner re-entered politics in 1984, when he was appointed Prime Minister in place of Jean Chretien. He announced that he would not run in a by-election to get into the Commons.

During this brief tenure as a still unelected PM, he did not distance himself from Trudeau’s policy, regarding appointments to various governmental boards and did not make public the agreement between him and Trudeau.

During the election campaign in 1984, he was criticized for the patronage appointments and shown weak and indecisive and his party lost to the Tories under Brian Mulroney.

The upcoming Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and Meech Lake Accord threatened to divide the party. Turner was pro-Accord and anti FTA and asked his senators to stall any legislation until the next elections.

Turner served in Trudeau’s cabinet as Minister of Justice between 1968 and 1972, updated the department, abandoned the tradition of party patronage in the appointment of judges, and oversaw numerous Criminal Code reforms.

When he became the PM, an election was immediately called, and he spent the summer campaigning for an election. During his brief, 79 day administration, Canada earned its highest ever Olympic medal haul.

As a former prime minister, Turner was styled The Right Honorable for life. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1994 for a distinguished parliamentary and legal career

Many honorary degrees were conferred upon him between 1968 and 2002. He was conferred Doctor of Laws by the universities of New Brunswick, York, Mount Allison, British Columbia, Toronto and Assumption.

In 1963, John Turner married Geills and they had four children - three sons and a daughter. Geills campaigned for him in the federal election and “brought computers into Turner's campaign.

John Turner died at the age of 91, on September 19, 2020.
 

John Turner was known for his love of skiing and was often seen hitting the slopes during his free time.

He had a passion for collecting rare stamps and was quite knowledgeable about their history and value.

Turner enjoyed playing the piano as a hobby and would often entertain his friends and family with impromptu performances.

He had a sweet tooth and was particularly fond of trying unique and exotic desserts from around the world.

Turner was an avid birdwatcher and would spend hours in nature observing and identifying different bird species.