Wyndham, John Napier Turner was Canada’s seventeenth Prime Minister. From track star to Rhodes Scholar, he entered politics in the 1960s and was frequently likened to John F. Kennedy. He was born with good looks and a natural charisma. PM Pearson was the one who originally welcomed him into the cabinet, and he went on to serve as minister of justice and minister of finance under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Turner unexpectedly resigned his position amid a global crisis and the risk of having to enact unpopular wage and price regulations. He stayed out of politics for a long time, only returning after Trudeau resigned to run for the Liberal leadership. Turner was Prime Minister for only 79 days (the second-shortest tenure in Canadian history), as he dissolved Parliament shortly after being sworn in, and then lost the election that followed. He was only in office for a brief time and was unable to do anything. However, as a cabinet minister, he had made significant modifications to the country’s legal structure. For the next six years, he was the leader of the Official Opposition, leading his party to a slight victory in the election. He left politics in 1993 to pursue a career as a lawyer.
Childhood and Adolescence
Turner was born in Surrey, England, to Leonard Turner and Phyllis Gregory on June 7, 1929. When his father died in 1932, he and his Canadian-born mother immigrated to Canada and settled in British Columbia.
In 1945, his mother remarried to Frank Mackenzie Ross, subsequently Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia, and the family moved to Vancouver. Turner attended Ashbury College and St Patrick’s College in Ottawa for his education.
In 1945, he began his studies at the University of British Columbia. He was a fantastic track sprinter who held the Canadian 100-meter record, but he was unable to compete in the 1948 London Olympics due to a damaged knee. He earned a Rhodes Scholarship after graduating from UBC.
He moved on to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he gained bachelor’s degrees in Jurisprudence and Civil Law, as well as an M.A.
Roger Bannister, the first man to break the four-minute mile barrier, was a track and field teammate at Oxford, while future Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser was a classmate.
From 1952 to 1953, he pursued PhD studies at the University of Paris, where he excelled academically. During his time at UBC, he was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.
He returned to Canada to study for his bar exam, and after clearing the Quebec bar in 1954, he joined the Montreal legal firm of Stikeman and Elliott.
Career of John
Turner was recruited by C.D. Howe, a Liberal M.P., to work in the party machine for the election in 1957, when the Liberals were searching for young individuals to help revive the party.
He was ready to run for office himself by 1962, and he chose the Quebec riding of St-Laurent-St-Georges. In June, he was elected after being nominated as a candidate.
As a member of the “Young Turks,” “He entered PM Pearson’s cabinet in 1967, campaigning for revisions in party policy. He was initially given no portfolio, but in 1967, he was appointed Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs.
At the 1968 leadership convention, Turner ran to succeed Pearson, who had retired. He was the youngest of the dozen candidates for Prime Minister, coming in third behind Pierre Trudeau and Robert Winters on the vote.
From 1972 until 1975, he was the Minister of Finance. He had to deal with a slew of global financial crises, including the price of oil skyrocketing, slowing economic development, surging inflation, and ballooning deficits.
He resigned from the cabinet in 1975 because of personality clashes with Trudeau, who had broken his electoral promise and intended to impose wage and price controls. Turner would prefer to resign rather than carry out the suggestion.
In 1984, he returned to politics when he was appointed Prime Minister to succeed Jean Chretien. He announced that he will not run for the Commons in a by-election.
He did not disassociate himself from Trudeau’s policy of appointments to various federal boards during his brief stint as a still unelected PM, and he would not make public the agreement between him and Trudeau.
During the 1984 election campaign, he was chastised for his patronage appointments and was portrayed as weak and indecisive, and his party fell to Brian Mulroney’s Tories.
The forthcoming Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the United States, as well as the Meech Lake Accord, threatened to split the party. Turner was pro-Accord but opposed the FTA, and he encouraged his senators to put any legislation on hold until after the elections.
He resigned from the party leadership after another electoral defeat in 1988, but continued to represent Vancouver Quadra in the House of Commons as a backbencher for a few more years.
After leaving politics in 1993, he went to work for Miller Thomson LLP as a lawyer, where he oversaw a scholarship program for exceptional young people and served on the boards of directors of several Canadian corporations.
Major Projects of John
Between 1968 and 1972, Turner served as Minister of Justice in Trudeau’s cabinet, updating the department, abandoning the tradition of party favoritism in judicial appointments, and overseeing several Criminal Code amendments.
When he became Prime Minister, an election was scheduled right away, and he spent the summer campaigning for it. During his 79-day presidency, Canada won the most Olympic medals it had ever won.
Awards and Achievements
Turner has the title of The Right Honorable for the rest of his life as a former prime minister. In 1994, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada for his outstanding parliamentary and legal career.
Between 1968 and 2002, he received a number of honorary degrees. The universities of New Brunswick, York, Mount Allison, British Columbia, Toronto, and Assumption all awarded him a Doctor of Laws degree.
Personal History and Legacy
Turner married Geills in 1963, and the couple has four children: three sons and a daughter. In the federal election, Geills campaigned for him and “introduced computers into Turner’s campaign.”
Estimated Net Worth
As of April 2, 2021, John M Jr Turner’s estimated net worth is at least $23.5 million USD. Mr. Turner holds over 60,178 units of Regions stock valued over $10,353,300, and he has sold RF shares worth over $0. in the last 11 years. He also earns $13,115,300 at Regions as President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director.
Trivia
“I’m not going to let Mr. Mulroney destroy a beautiful 120-year-old dream called Canada,” the incumbent prime minister of Canada said of his competitor over the impending free trade pact.”
He observed Leader of the Opposition John Diefenbaker, who was staying at the same hotel, struggle in the heavy surf and jumped in to help Diefenbaker to land while on holiday in Barbados.