Paul Litt is a historian at Carleton University in Ottawa. His account of John Turner’s political career is based on extensive research in the Turner papers and other archival collections, contemporary journalism, and scores of interviews with friends, family, and colleagues of John Turner. He also spent considerable time with Turner himself, talking with him about his early career in politics, his relationship with Trudeau, his decision to leave politics for nearly a decade, what prompted him to come back, and the challenge of rebuilding a Liberal party that pundits declared was finished as a political force in Canada.