Remembering the tumultuous legacy of John Turner Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. Canada's second-shortest serving prime minister, John Turner, passed away peacefully in his home on Friday night at the age of 91. Turner led a remarkable life, rising from near-Olympic athlete to a popular foil to Pierre Trudeau in the latter's cabinet, where he headed up the finance and justice ministries throughout the late 1960s and early '70s. He later became prime minister for 79 short days in 1984, losing disastrously to Brian Mulroney. Before all that, in 1968, was a rising Liberal star, handsome and old-school. It was at the outset of his career that he granted a thorough interview to Maclean's, which you can read in our archives here. The blue-grey Irish eyes were smiling with confidence. The engaging, I'm-on-your-side grin that punctuates his conversation like white exclamation marks was at its radiant best. John Turner, 39, the dashing young man of the Liberal machine, was briefed and ready to rewrite the antiquated annals of Canadian justice. Turner’s image is immaculate. It combines gravity (he was once a sound corporation and trial lawyer in Montreal), gaiety (this is the man who whirled Princess Margaret around a dance floor) and guts (remember how he hung in there during last spring's leadership convention?). The message was unmistakable: if such a man can’t push through the long-overdue reforms to our judicial system, then nobody can. All that remained to be worked out were such secondary details as priorities and parliamentary tactics. Leader of the Official Isolation. The new Conservative leader, Erin O'Toole, tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, hours after Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet did, too. Blanchet's wife experienced some symptoms, but party reps say they're healthy; O'Toole's family (somehow) tested negative. Neither leader will be able to attend Wednesday's throne speech, which is so much the better for a city that has currently, according to Ottawa's chief medical officer of health, entered the dreaded second wave. Speaking of party leaders, Maxime Bernier is taking another stab at winning a seat in Parliament, this time in York Centre. It's unclear whether the longtime Quebec MP, who sat for the Tories before defecting and starting his own libertarian-ish party with outspoken stances against mass immigration, will win over many hearts and minds in the largely Jewish and Filipino riding in Ontario. The Liberals, who won the seat in 2015 and 2019, have tapped Ya’ara Saks, the director at a charity that helps trauma survivors, to run in place of Michael Levitt , who resigned on Sept. 1 to head up the Canadian Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies. The York Centre by-election is one of two that have been called for Oct. 26, the other being Toronto Centre, the old stomping ground of former finance minister Bill Morneau. Uh, come again? After it was announced that the U.S.-Canada border would, to no one's surprise, remain closed for another month, Donald Trump offered a classically Trumpian offhanded comment that caused diplomats and bureaucrats to scratch their heads. "We’re looking at the border with Canada," Trump told reporters. "Canada would like it opened, and, you know, we want to get back to normal business." To be clear: Canadians definitely don't want the border re-opened right now. Literally 90 per cent of Canadians do not want the border re-opened right now. Less mortgage, more housing. Canada's national housing agency, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, is undergoing a rebrand. While known to most homeowners as "the people who force you to buy mortgage insurance when you don't have a 20 per cent down payment," the corporation in fact has a broader mandate to help match Canadians with affordable housing options, including rentals and social housing. CMHC CEO Evan Siddall told the Canadian Press the new brand name might be something less mortgage-y, like "Housing Canada". The Premiers of Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and Alberta have come together to ask for more money from the federal government to help fight COVID-19. Specifically, at a joint press conference on Friday, they asked the feds to raise their portion of Canada Health Transfer payments by 13 per cent, from 22 per cent ($42 billion) to 35 per cent ($70 billion). Just yesterday, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc appeared on Global's The West Block to confirm the government is "prepared to have that conversation." On a lighter note... If you haven't yet heard the name Aries Benuen, keep it in your mind during the NHL draft in a few years. The 14-year-old hockey phenom is a star in his Innu community on the coast of Labrador, inhibited only by family finances. To help pay his five-figure tuition to the prestigious Canadian International Hockey Academy in Rockland, Ont., he and his grandfather trekked 330 kilometres and started a GoFundMe. The hike wrapped up recently, and the family discovered they'd received more than $77,000 in donations, overwhelming them and ensuring Aries gets the shot he deserves. —Michael Fraiman | 
