I grew up in Vancouver and both my father and step father were inside movers and shakers in the Liberal party.
They both told me about stories of John and Gilles Turner and their tumultuous marriage and I actually got to see some of that close up.
From what I understand they were in a mutually physically abusive relationship.
I remember I was at a party where they were both there, and drinking a lot.
I didn't witness it but a friand of mine told me that he walked in on the couple who were having a loud argument and witnessed both John Turner and his wife haul off and wallop each other.
On one occasion I remember seeing Geillis appearing in public with dark glasses to hide a black eye.
John Turner was notorious for drinking too much even at official government functions.
An old colleague of mine recalled how Turner once taunted famed TV news reporter Pamela Wallin at a garden party in Ottawa.
The grass was wet from an earlier rainfall and Wallin was holding her shoes in her hand.
My friend heard Turner say, something like, "Well, Pamela, how many beds have  those shoes been under?"
Months later Wallin got a chance to interview Turner on air and tore into him in a no holds barred interview.
Turner was perhaps the greatest Prime Minister Canada never had.
By the time it was his turn he was burned out and physically impaired with back problems.
But at one time, when Pierre Trudeau held sway, Turner could have been the great man.
He just kept missing his time and fizzled out as a Canadian leader.




 

newsguy1 wrote:

They both told me about stories of John and Gilles Turner . . . 
On one occasion I remember seeing Geillis appearing in public with dark glasses to hide a black eye.

"Geills", not Gilles or Geillis