Liberal Party politician John Turner, who served as Canada’s Minister of Justice and Finance shortly before becoming Prime Minister, has died at the age of 91.
Speaking on behalf of the family, Mark Kelly, a former assistant, said Turner died peacefully in his sleep at Taranto’s home Friday night.
Turner failed to live up to the big expectations of his early career, serving as prime minister in 1988 after a difficult, decades-long top job in 1988.
A track athletics star, Turner graduated from British Columbia University in 1949, receiving a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University. After studying law, he went to Paris to work as a doctor in the Sorbonne.
Dancing with Princess Margaret at a party in 1959, the young lawyer caused a stir, leading to speculation that the two would become a couple. The two remained lifelong friends.
Turner moved to Montreal to practice law but became enticed into politics in 1962.
As Minister of Justice in Pierre Trudeau’s cabinet from 1968 to 1972, Turner proposed national legal aid – an issue close to his heart – and formed a federal court with other amendments. He defended the Declaration of Homosexuality and Abortion in the 1960s
He was appointed Finance Minister in 1972 and held the post for three turbulent years marked by high unemployment and high inflation rates.
As the leader of the Liberal Party and the new Prime Minister of Canada, he decisively lost Brian Mueller’s 1988 federal election on the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement, which Turner vehemently opposed.
