John Turner

The Right Honourable John Turner PC CC QC
Turner in 2018
17th Prime Minister of Canada
In office June 30, 1984 – September 17, 1984
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governor General	Jeanne Sauvé
Deputy	Jean Chrétien
Preceded by	Pierre Trudeau
Succeeded by	Brian Mulroney
Leader of the Opposition
In office September 17, 1984 – February 7, 1990
Preceded by	Brian Mulroney
Succeeded by	Herb Gray
Leader of the Liberal Party
In office June 16, 1984 – June 23, 1990
Preceded by	Pierre Trudeau
Succeeded by	Jean Chrétien
Minister of Finance
In office January 28, 1972 – September 10, 1975
Prime Minister	Pierre Trudeau
Preceded by	Edgar Benson
Succeeded by	Donald Stovel Macdonald
Minister of Justice Attorney General of Canada
In office July 6, 1968 – January 28, 1972
Prime Minister	Pierre Trudeau
Preceded by	Pierre Trudeau
Succeeded by	Otto Lang
Solicitor General of Canada
In office April 20, 1968 – July 5, 1968
Prime Minister	Pierre Trudeau
Preceded by	Lawrence Pennell
Succeeded by	George McIlraith
Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs Registrar General of Canada
In office December 21, 1967 – July 5, 1968
Prime Minister	Lester B. Pearson Pierre Trudeau
Preceded by	Guy Favreau
Succeeded by	George McIlraith
House of Commons constituencies Member of Parliament for Vancouver Quadra In office September 4, 1984 – October 25, 1993 Preceded by Bill Clarke Succeeded by Ted McWhinney Member of Parliament for Ottawa—Carleton St. Lawrence—St. George (1962–1968) In office June 18, 1962 – February 12, 1976 Preceded by Egan Chambers Succeeded by Jean Pigott
Personal details
Born	John Napier Wyndham Turner (1929-06-07)June 7, 1929 Richmond, Surrey, England
Died	September 19, 2020(2020-09-19) (aged 91) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Resting place	Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto
Citizenship	Canada (by descent) United Kingdom (by birth)
Political party	Liberal
Spouse	Geills Kilgour ​ (m. 1963)​
Children	4
Parent	Phyllis Ross (mother)
Alma mater	University of British Columbia (BA) Magdalen College, Oxford (BA, BCL, MA) University of Paris (no degree)
Occupation	Politician lawyer
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John Napier Wyndham Turner PC CC QC (June 7, 1929 – September 19, 2020) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 17th prime minister of Canada from June to September 1984. He served as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and leader of the Official Opposition from 1984 to 1990.

Turner practised law before being elected as a member of Parliament in the 1962 federal election. He served in the cabinet of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau as minister of justice and attorney general from 1968 to 1972, and minister of finance from 1972 to 1975. As a cabinet minister, Turner came to be known as a leader of the Business Liberal faction of the Liberal Party. Amid a global recession and the prospect of having to implement unpopular wage and price controls, Turner resigned from his position in 1975.

From 1976 to 1984, Turner took a hiatus from politics, working as a corporate lawyer on Bay Street. Trudeau's resignation in 1984 triggered a leadership election, in which Turner successfully contested. Turner held the office of prime minister for just 79 days,^[1] as he advised the governor general to dissolve Parliament soon after being sworn in. He went on to lose the 1984 election in a landslide to Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservatives, leading the Liberals to the second-worst defeat for a governing party at the federal level (in terms of proportion of seats). Turner stayed on as Liberal leader and led the Opposition for the next six years. In the 1988 election, he vigorously campaigned against Mulroney's proposed free trade agreement with the United States, and led the Liberals to a modest recovery. Turner resigned as party leader in 1990 and did not seek re-election in 1993.

Turner was Canada's first prime minister born in the United Kingdom since Mackenzie Bowell in 1896, Canada's second shortest-serving prime minister behind Charles Tupper,^[2] and Canada's fourth longest-lived prime minister, living to the age of 91.