Elusive Destiny

Paul Litt is a historian at Carleton University in Ottawa. His account of John Turner's political career is based on extensive research in the Turner papers and other archival collections, contemporary journalism, and scores of interviews with Turner's friends, family, and colleagues. He also spent considerable time with Turner himself.

"Finally, at 82, Turner's life and career in politics receive appropriate recognition in Elusive Destiny, a biography by Carleton University historian Paul Litt that is one of the best Canadian political books of the year."- L. Ian MacDonald (London Free Press) Former prime minister John Turner's life and career receive appropriate recognition in Elusive Destiny: The Political Vocation of John Napier Turner, one of the best Canadian political books of the year. - L. Ian MacDonald (Montreal Gazette) Exhaustively detailed and based on interviews with key people, including Turner himself, the book provides the first complete account of a man whose rise and fall still stands as one of Canada's most intriguing political stories. - Mark Kennedy (Postmedia News) New biography of Turner ... is a valuable, new addition to that recorded history ... the book chronicles Turner's political career through some powerful Liberal highs and lows of the latter half of the 20th century. - Susan Delacourt (The Toronto Star) If John Turner had been elected prime minister, Canada would be an entirely different country ... there would never have been a Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, the Bloc Québécois and Reform parties would likely not have been formed and 'the fiscal base for Canadian social democracy would have been stronger and social programs better preserved under a Turner administration,' according to a new biography on the former prime minister by Carleton University professor Paul Litt. - Bea Vongdouangchanh (The Hill Times) A compelling biography of a tragic political figure ... [and] an important history of Canadian politics in the 1970s and 1980s and, most important, chronicled the first years of the decades-long self-immolation of a once-great political party. - John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail) "With the advantage of time and the depth of Litt's book, the accusations that Turner was yesterday's man by the late 1980s seem more accurate than ever, especially given a media environment closer in time and tone to the Kardashian-Humphries wedding than the Kennedy-Nixon debate." - Dan Rowe (Quill and Quire) Is it time to revisit the record of John Turner? Thanks to biographer Paul Litt, and his new book on John Turner, the answer is yes. - Michael Harris (iPolitics)

• Foreword by John EnglishIntroduction: The Right Man at the Wrong TimePART 1: LIBERAL APPRENTICE, 1929-681 The Making of an Extrovert2 Circling Home3 Getting Ahead in Canadian Politics4 Shoals of Candidacy5 Close to PowerPART 2: MASTER POLITICIAN, 1968-796 Driving the Omnibus7 Implementing the Just Society8 Apprehended Insurrection9 Intranational Diplomacy10 Shokku1 1 The Price of Gas12 Stalking Stagflation13 Citizen TurnerPART 3: LEADERSHIP, 1979-8814 A Myth and a Muddle15 Oiling the Tinman16 Prime Minister for a Day17 Things Fall Apart18 The Road Back19 Participatory Democracy20 Creature from the Black Lagoon21 Image, Substance, and Subversion22 Mad Dog and BusinessmenConclusion: Legacies and Might-Have-BeensNotesSelected BibliographyIndex