Product Code Database
John Garth Turner is a Canadians business journalist, author, Entrepreneurship, broadcaster, financial advisor, and politician, twice elected as a Member of the House of Commons, former Minister of National Revenue and leadership candidate for the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. After serving as a PC MP between 1988 and 1993, he returned to political life as a candidate for the Conservative Party of Canada in the 2006 federal election, beating Liberal Gary Carr in the riding of Halton, Ontario. On October 18, 2006, the Conservative Party suspended him from the Conservative caucus for his independent stance, and he sat as an Independent MP until February 6, 2007, when he joined the Liberal Party of Canada. "Maverick MP Garth Turner joins Liberals". CBC News, February 6, 2007. Retrieved 2014-06-09. His great-grandfather, Ebenezer Vining Bodwell, was also a Liberal Member of Parliament. garth.ca blog entry
He earned a Bachelor of Arts in English literature from the University of Toronto, and a Master of Arts in English literature from the University of Western Ontario. Turner claimed that, during his university years, he joined The Waffle group within the New Democratic Party.
Before entering a career in electoral politics Turner founded and owned weekly newspapers in Ontario. He also worked as an editor for The Globe and Mail, Metroland Publishing and Thomson Newspapers, and helped launch Maclean's as a newsweekly magazine. He was subsequently business editor of the Toronto Sun for ten years.
Also, during this period, Turner became a public speaker, traveling the country and attracting crowds at events often sponsored by financial advisory companies, banks, mutual fund companies and real estate investment companies. He also authored a string of bestsellers, including '2015: After the Boom', 'The Strategy', 'The Defence', '2020' and an annual RRSP guide.
Turner is the founder and former CEO of The Credit River Company, a Caledon-based destination and ecotourism company that restored heritage buildings in the area. Turner served as national director of the Vancouver-based Sierra Legal Defence Fund, an organization dedicated to upholding environmental laws, resigning after his return to the House of Commons. His charity work included acting as a spokesperson for the Alzheimer Society of Canada.
In April 2008, Turner published Greater Fool, The Troubled Future of Real Estate, detailed Turner's view of the dangers confronting middle-class Canadians who reside in volatile urban real estate markets across the country. His subsequent book, After the Crash, which was published in early 2009, is an examination of the financial crisis gripping North America. In an article published in newspapers in December 2008, the Canadian Press called Greater Fool both "prescient" and "scarily bang-on." In February 2009, 'After the Crash' became a national bestseller, according to the Globe and Mail and Booknet Canada. It concentrates on financial forecasting and strategies for the 2010-2015 period.
In 2009, Turner launched an online retail operation, xurbia.ca, offering renewable and alternative energy products and equipment, as well as preparedness supplies, citing climate change and the ongoing economic downturn as precipitating factors. He also relaunched his pre-election eco-tourism business with the purchase of the historic (1855) Cataract Inn, in Caledon, Ontario, outside of Toronto. Turner also returned to his national speaking tours, focusing on investor education in a string of events once again sponsored by prominent companies in the financial services sector.
Turner was very critical of former Liberal cabinet minister David Emerson's floor-crossing to the Conservatives. Turner called for Emerson to resign from Parliament and try to regain his seat in a by-election, saying that "anyone who crosses the floor ultimately should go back to the people for ratification and I stick by it and hopefully in this case that will happen...."
On October 19, 2006, the Toronto Star reported that Turner was being courted to become the first ever Green Party of Canada member of Parliament. Turner praised Green leader Elizabeth May on his blog and campaigned for her in her bid to win a seat in the London by-election. "Maverick MP Turner resigns from Conservative party". CBC News, November 14, 2006. Retrieved 2014-06-09. According to Turner's weblog, his constituents were consulted over a number of weeks, and various options for action were considered: that he remain an independent Member of Parliament with no party affiliation; that he reconcile with the Conservative party; or that he join the Green Party. After a period of introspection and deliberation, on February 6, 2007, Turner surprised many observers by joining the Liberal Party caucus at the invitation of its leader, Stéphane Dion.
The Conservative Party has criticized this decision as contrary to Turner's often-declared principle of electoral accountability to voters. In response, Turner repeatedly offered to run in a by-election in his constituency of Halton, Ontario, should David Emerson and Wajid Khan (floor-crossing members in the Conservative caucus, each former Liberals) also run in by-elections in their constituencies held at the same time.
In the 2008 federal election, Turner ran unsuccessfully for the Liberal Party in Halton, being defeated by Conservative Lisa Raitt.
In April 2009, Turner published the book, "Sheeple: Caucus Confidential in Stephen Harper's Ottawa," through Key Porter Books. It is an account of his experiences within and without the caucus of the Conservative Party, and the clash between backroom-style politics and the open blogging Turner pioneered as a web-based MP.
In October 2009, Turner resigned his candidacy for the Liberal nomination in Dufferin—Caledon, stating that then-leader Michael Ignatieff's failure to allow a nomination meeting was a signal that his views are unwelcome.
|
|
