Well Jeff - as you know, those appointments were made by Trudeau and handed a stinking pile to John Turner.   Trudeau did not like Turner (eg:  did not campaign for Turner in the 1984 election) - that is well known and basically sabotaged Turner with these appointments.    Turner, did not have the guts to reverse the appointments - leading to Mulroney's famous "You had an option, sir" in the election debates which relegated Turner to also ran status.

In other words - those 1984 appointments were not made as "business as usual".   They were made with malicious intent and they worked.      You're also forgetting that Trudeau did this while handing the Govt to Turner who had just won the Leadership convention.     It was done before the 1984 election was called.      Harper did his appointment spree AFTER losing an election for FUTURE appointments (after the Liberals took power), not to fill current spots.