“In the summer of 1982, during the 1981-82 recession, a Gallup poll was published showing the federal Liberals at 28%. Undaunted by this, the Liberal research softball team appeared at their next game wearing T-shirts with the slogan “28 in 82, 48 in 84.” And, indeed, in 1984 just after John Turner was elected Liberal leader replacing Pierre Trudeau, a Gallup poll came out showing the Liberals leading the Progressive Conservatives by 48% to 41%. Unfortunately for Mr. Turner fortune turned massively against the Liberals again before the 1984 election.
I have always remembered this as a classic illustration of how political fortunes can rise and fall with dizzying speed and ruthless efficiency. In the words of another short-lived Prime Minister, Arthur Meighen, for John Turner in 1984 “fortune came and fortune fled.