There are many novel aspects to John Turner, and not exclusively that he is one of Canada’s shortest serving leaders - at a mere 79 days, he is only beaten out by Charles Tupper for that title. But he also holds the title of the only PM to be born outside of Canada in the 20th century, the only one to qualify for the Olympic Games, and the only one to court a princess. He is also Canada’s oldest living former prime minister. Oh, he’s an interesting one.

John Napier Wyndham Tuner was, as his name suggests, born in Great Britain, in the London suburb of Richmond in June 1929. His father, Leonard was a journalist and his mother Phyllis Gregory was a Canadian citizen. They had two other children before his father’s passing, after which is mother moved her young family back to her hometown of Rossland, B.C. I grew up in a town an hour west of there, and I never knew this. I thought the most famous thing to come out of Rossland was Nancy Greene.

The family didn’t stay in the small Kootenay town for long. Phyllis moved the family to Ottawa and she, witch her economist background, found a job as a civil servant, . There she met Frank Mackenzie Ross, who was in Ottawa helping the government procure supplies for World War 2. The two were wed in 1945 and relocated the family to Vancouver, B.C. Frank Mackenzie Ross would later serve at the 19th lieutenant-governor of B.C. from 1955 to 1960.

Turner was an athlete. He started attending UBC, studying political science, in 1945 at 16 years old, and was a prominent member of the track team. He was known as the fastest man in Canada in 1947, setting the 100-metre national record at 9.8 seconds. He did qualify for the 1948 London Olympic Games, but a knee injury kept him from competing.

After graduating from UBC in 1949, he went to study at Oxford with a Rhodes Scholarship. There he rubbed shoulders with notable historical figures - he ran track with Roger Bannister , famed for being the first man to run a four-minute mile, and was friends with Malcom Fraser, future prime minister of Australia. After he completed his law studies, he returned to Canada where he worked as a lawyer in Montreal in 1955.

John Turner and Princess Margaret were “nearly married” - Photos thanks to the CBC Archives

His brushes with famous friends didn’t end there at Oxford though. In 1958, he met Princess Margaret at celebration to open the new government house in B.C. The party, which was hosted by his step-father, was infamous, as the two danced most of the evening together. According to Princess Margaret, the two were “nearly wed”, or as so she said in a letter to a friend of hers in 1966. But alas, it was not to be. Princess Margaret married David Armstrong-Jones in 1960, at which John Turner was a guest. For his part, he married Geillis McCrae Kilgour in 1963, and the couple had four children - one daughter and three sons.

And for his political career, Turner was first elected as a member of parliament in 1962, and served in a plethora of cabinet positions under multiple leaders - Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau. One of his most memorable political moves was when he resigned as Finance Minister for Trudeau in 1975. Trudeau wrote that Turner resigned to gain a more lucrative career in the private sector to support and see his family more. Yet Turner, in his own words, said he resigned to not legislate wage and price controls, a policy that Trudeau’s Liberal campaigned against in the 1974 election and were now looking to implement.

He was not done with politics forever. Upon hearing of Trudeau’s retirement in 1984, Turner returned to the Liberal Party to put his name in for the leadership race. He beat out Jean Chrétien for the leadership bid and was formally appointed as prime minister one June 30, 1984. His first act may have been his own downfall, as he asked the Governor General Jeanne Sauvé to dissolve parliament and hold an election, which they were ultimately whooped in. The Progressive-Conservative party, under Brian Mulroney, gave the Liberals their worst defeat of the 20th century, leaving the Liberals with a mere 40 seats in parliament. Because of Turner’s short time in the PM’s office, he and Kim Campbell are the only two prime ministers to never face parliament and never introduce any of policies or legislature.

Though his party suffered a huge loss, Turner himself won his riding of Vancouver-Quadra and became leader of the opposition. He was Liberal Leader during the 1988 federal elections, where the Liberals recovered a little, receiving 83 seats to the Tories 169. After the election, he stepped down as opposition leader before the 1990 Leadership Race, which was won by Jean Chrétien. Turner served his riding of Vancouver-Quadra until retiring in 1993.

John Turner after leaving politics in the 2000s.

While it may have been a mere 79 days in office, the path to the leadership was interesting, filled with athletics and romances. Imagine that episode of The Crown had Princess Margaret married John Turner… I bet he would have enjoyed watching that.