Commentary by Michael Bliss Power came too late for John Turner. He had been a star in the Liberal Party since the 1960s, an heir apparent and often a powerful Cabinet minister. But when he finally was chosen to succeed Trudeau, he had been out of office for several years and his political skills were rusty. He called an election right away to get a mandate, and in that 1984 campaign had to bear all the weight of voters' dislike of the last Trudeau government. The Mulroney Conservative steamroller flattened the Liberals. And John Turner, like Kim Campbell a few years later, became a prime minister who never had a chance to do anything.