In praise of John Turner
Re: Remembering a dear friend, Conrad Black, Sept. 25
John Turner wasn’t PM for long, but over the broad sweep of an extended and distinguished political career he was nothing but prime ministerial. His death last week occasions a salient reminder of the groundwork he helped lay as the 17th link in a chain at our country’s helm and how it afforded a new generation of Liberal leaders the luxury of its current rhetorical indulgences.
Under his watch, our country saw strides made in justice, fiscal rectitude and human rights, demanding sacrifice and effort. Diversity was a word to explain the federation’s disparate regions, support for the right to choose was not an obligation, and charities inspired contribution without a glance at the polls.
The salutary foundation John Turner helped cement over his political career gave us our current era which, with its creature comforts, has seen the battle changed to something quite other.
Justice is now of a performative kind, deficits are irrelevant, and human rights are little more than the fetishization of phenotypic variation and sexual introspection. Victimhood is an industrial- complex, charities are nest- feathering vehicles, and any policy-making decision can be justified by dint of the fact that we are living in the most enlightened of moments.
When you stand on the shoulders of such leaders of yore, it is no wonder that the current crop no longer need be of the same mettle.
May he rest in peace.
Simon Dermer, Toronto