Protecting water crucial, Turner warns

Then prime minister-designate John Turner is surrounded by his children in this 1984 photo.

Photograph by: UPC , ac/Star

Protecting water crucial, Turner warns 

But the former PM says he is 'pro-oilsands,' as long as the environmental effect is minimized 

By Mark Kennedy, Postmedia News/Calgary Herald November 27, 2012 

Canadians must make the protection of their nation's lakes and rivers a top priority, warns former prime minister John Turner. 

"Water is crucial. And Canadians ought not to neglect this. It is one of our great assets," he said in an exclusive interview with Postmedia News. 

Turner's interest in Canada's water system stretches back decades. As a young MP in the early 1960s, he helped renegotiate the Columbia River Treaty, an agreement between Canada and the United States that governs the operation of dams on water systems that affect both countries. 

Now 83, Turner is honorary director of World Wildlife Fund Canada. He has a cottage on Lake of the Woods, a massive body of water in northern Ontario that stretches into Manitoba and the United States. 

He recently helped persuade the International Joint Commission to monitor water quality of that lake, and called it just one example of how Canada must work to preserve what he calls this country's "water footprint." 

Not only is it a resource that many Canadians with cottages cherish, but Turner has also noted in the past that many companies - from those in the oil sector to lumber - also need water for their own production operations. 

"It's our best asset," Turner stressed in the interview. Canada has the third-largest fresh water supply in the world, behind Brazil and Russia. 

"We've got to protect it. We've got to watch our American friends on it." 

Turner made the comments as part of a Postmedia News project in which all of Canada's six living former prime ministers were interviewed on issues of the day. 

Turner, who had a lengthy political career in cabinet and the opposition benches, was prime minister in 1984. 

Postmedia News asked Turner to comment on six key themes.   

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