John Turner is now the 5th oldest Prime Minister

As of today John Turner is 83 years and 333 days old, one day older than John Diefenbaker managed to live.  He still has a long way to go to become the oldest Prime Minister.   Charles Tupper lived to 94 years and 120 days old and it will take John Turner till October 4th 2023 to pass him.   Tupper is also the only Prime Minister to have served a shorter term than Turner - 68 days versus 79 days for Turner.

Canada has seven current and former Prime Ministers currently alive out of a total of 22 since confederation in 1867.   They may be 31.2% of the Prime Ministers Canada has had, but they only governed for 20.3% of the time since Confederation.  There of the living former Prime Ministers have second, third and fourth shortest terms in Canadian history.

Current living Prime Ministers and their ages:

• Joe Clark - 73
• John Turner - 83
• Brian Mulroney - 74
• Kim Campbell - 66
• Jean Chretien - 79
• Paul Martin - 74
• Stephen Harper - 54

This is the largest number to be alive at anytime in Canadian history.  Realistically this number is unlikely to increase anytime before October 2015 though it could go down if there is a death.

We have also now gone 12 and half years since the last death of a Prime Minister - Pierre Trudeau in September 2000.   This is the second longest period we have had when no Prime Minister has died.  The longest was from February 1919 to June 1937.

Interestingly, Martin, Mulroney and Clark are all born within a 10 month period at the end of the depression.