John Napier Turner

The Rt. Hon. John Napier Turner

Rank:	17th
Term:	June 30 - September 17, 1984
Predecessor:	Pierre Elliott Trudeau
Successor:	Brian Mulroney
Date of Birth:	June 7, 1929
Place of Birth:	Richmond, Surrey, England
Spouse:	Geills McCrae Kilgour
Profession:	lawyer
Political Party:	Liberal

John Napier Turner (born June 7, 1929) was the seventeenth Prime Minister of Canada from June 30, 1984 to September 17, 1984.

He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, and emigrated to Canada 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 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. He would remain leader of the opposition, losing to Mulroney again in the election of 1988. 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.