Turner only served as Prime Minister for 79 days in 1984 - the second shortest tenure in Canadian history after Sir Charles Tupper who served for 69 days in 1896.
Born in the United Kingdom, Turner emigrated to Canada early in childhood. A gifted athlete, Turner made the Canadian Olympic track and field team. However, he was unable to compete in the 1948 Olympics due to a knee injury. Turner would study at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and later at the Sorbonne in Paris. He was briefly in a relationship with Princess Margaret, but his Catholicism rendered marriage between the two untenable.
Turner would return to Canada to practice law in Montreal before being elected to Canada's House of Commons in 1962 and would later serve in Lester Pearson's cabinet as Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs. Following Pearson's retirement in 1968, Turner sought the Liberal Party leadership but finished third behind Pierre Trudeau and Robert Winters.
During Trudeau's premiership, Turner served in his cabinet first as Minister of Justice and later as Minister of Finance. Turner abruptly resigned his post as Minister of Finance in 1975 when Trudeau decided to implement wage and price controls after having campaigned against it during the 1974 federal election. Turner spent nearly the next decade as a successful corporate lawyer on Bay Street in Toronto.
After Trudeau abruptly resigned as Prime Minister early in 1984, Turner returned to Liberal politics after nearly a decade defeating Jean Chretien in a bitterly contested party leadership race.
Turner immediately called an election. This would prove disastrous. Turner agreed to Trudeau's patronage appointments and made a few of his own and when called upon to defend it in a debate with Progressive Conservative Party leader Brian Mulroney he fumbled. He also did himself no favors when he patted the bottom of Liberal Party President Iona Campagnolo.
Canadian voters gave Mulroney's Tories as massive majority government while rewarded Turner's Liberals with 40 seats - their worse showing ever until 2011 when the Liberals only won 34 seats under Michael Ignatieff.
Despite tremendous infighting, Turner remained Liberal Party leader during the 1988 election which was defined by free trade. While Mulroney would earn a second term, the Liberals would more than double their seat total. However, Turner would step down as Liberal leader in May 1989 with Herb Gray taking over on an interim basis before Chretien won the party leadership the following year. Turner remained in the backbenches and did not contest the 1993 election in which the Liberals would return to power.
Turner spent the last quarter century plus in private practice, headed up the Canadian delegation to monitor the Ukrainian presidential election runoff in 2004 and participated in the Canadian reality show Canada's Next Great Prime Minister. R.I.P.
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