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About Ronald Turner
- Ronald David Turner, (August 19, 1915 in Carman, Manitoba – 1965) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada.
- He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1946 to 1956, and was a cabinet minister in the government of Douglas Campbell.Turner was educated at the University of Manitoba and the Manitoba Law School.
- He practiced as a barrister-at-law, and became a Queen's Counsel in 1955. During World War II, Turner served in the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1939 to 1945.
- In 1946, he was elected to the Manitoba legislature as a special representative of Manitobans serving overseas in the RCAF.
- Although elected as an independent, he soon joined the caucus of the governing Liberal-Progressive Party.He was re-elected in the 1949 provincial election, winning the third position in the four-member constituency of Winnipeg South.
- On December 1, 1951, he was appointed to cabinet in the senior position of Provincial Treasurer.Turner was again re-elected in the 1953 provincial election, topping the poll in Winnipeg South.
- He was by this time the leading cabinet representative from Winnipeg, and received the additional portfolio of Railway Commissioner on January 18, 1954.Turner was known as a skilled politician, and was described by CCF leader Lloyd Stinson as "undoubtedly the brightest front bench performer in the latter days of the Campbell regime".
- He was known as both a civil liberal and a fiscal conservative.
- Just prior to the 1953 provincial election, he summarizing his political philosophy with the following statement: "The government is of the belief that the cost of government should be held to the minimum commensurate with the provision of a satisfactory level of essential services." While a conservative and cautious administrator in most respects, Turner played a leading role in establishing the Manitoba Hydro-electric Board in 1953, at a cost of $54,600,000.
- The Hydro-Electric Board later became one of the most powerful public agencies in Canada. Many believed Turner would eventually replace Campbell as leader of the Liberal-Progressive Party, but this did not occur.
- He resigned from cabinet on July 6, 1956 to become president of Transair, an airline based in Winnipeg.
- He remained in the legislature as a backbencher, but did not seek re-election in 1958.
- As a backbencher, he opposed the CCF's plan for comprehensive social security. Turner's friends expected that he would eventually return to politics, either as provincial Liberal leader or as a Member of Parliament for the federal Liberal Party.
- His early death in 1965 came as a surprise to those who knew him.
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