Joe Clark
Charles Joseph Clark is a Canadian businessman, writer, and retired politician who served as the 16th prime minister of Canada from 1979 to 1980. He also served as leader of the Official Opposition from 1976 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1983.
Despite his relative inexperience, Clark rose quickly in federal politics. He was first elected to the House of Commons in 1972 and won the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party in 1976. He led the party to a minority government in the 1979 federal election, defeating the Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau and ending 16 years of continuous Liberal rule. Taking office the day before his 40th birthday, Clark became the youngest prime minister in Canadian history.
Upon becoming prime minister, Clark advanced freedom of information legislation and oversaw the "Canadian Caper" rescue in response to the Iran hostage crisis; however, his tenure was brief as the minority government was brought down by a non-confidence vote on his first budget in December 1979. The budget defeat triggered the 1980 federal election. Clark and the Progressive Conservatives lost the election to Trudeau and the Liberals, who won a majority government and returned to power. As of, he remains the most recent prime minister to have lost power following the defeat of his budget.
Clark lost the leadership of the party to Brian Mulroney in 1983. He served in Mulroney's cabinet as Secretary of State for External Affairs from 1984 to 1991 and as President of the Privy Council and Minister responsible for Constitutional Affairs from 1991 to 1993. Clark did not stand for re-election in 1993. From 1993 to 1996, he served as Special Representative to the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Cyprus. Clark made a political comeback in 1998 to lead the Progressive Conservatives in their last general election before the party's eventual dissolution, serving his final term in Parliament from 2000 to 2004. After the Progressive Conservatives merged with the more right-wing Canadian Alliance in 2003 to form the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, Clark sat as an independent Progressive Conservative. He criticized the merger as what he described as an "Alliance take-over", believing that the new party was drifting towards social conservatism. Clark today serves as a university professor and as president of his own consulting firm.
Early years
Charles Joseph Clark was born on June 5, 1939, in High River, Alberta, the son of Grace Roselyn and local newspaper publisher Charles A. Clark.Clark attended local schools and the University of Alberta, where he earned a bachelor's degree in history and a master's degree in political science. While in high school, he gained journalism experience with the High River Times and the Calgary Albertan. In his first year at the University of Alberta, Clark joined the staff of the campus newspaper, The Gateway, and eventually became its editor-in-chief. Clark was also a member of the University of Alberta Debate Society. He later worked one summer at the Edmonton Journal where he met his future biographer, David L. Humphreys.
Clark then attended Dalhousie Law School. However, he spent more time with the Dalhousie Student Union, Progressive Conservative politics and the Dalhousie Gazette, than on his courses. After leaving Dalhousie, he unsuccessfully pursued first-year law studies at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law in Vancouver. He then worked full-time for the Progressive Conservative Party.
In 1973, Clark married law student Maureen McTeer. McTeer has developed her own career as a well-known author and lawyer and caused controversy by keeping her maiden name after marriage, a practice less common at the time. Their daughter, Catherine has pursued a career in broadcasting.
Early political career
Clark became politically active while at university, although he had been aware from a young age of politics in Canada. He competed with the University of Alberta Debate Society. He served as president of the University of Alberta Young Progressive Conservatives and eventually served as national president for the Young PCs group. Clark sparred with future political rival Preston Manning in debate forums on campus between the Young PCs and the Youth League of the Alberta Social Credit Party. Clark encountered another future rival when he met Brian Mulroney at a national Young PCs meeting in 1958.Clark spent time in France to improve his fluency in the French language and took courses in French while he was living in Ottawa. He eventually became comfortable speaking and answering questions in French.
Clark entered politics at age 28 but was unsuccessful as candidate for the provincial Progressive Conservatives in the 1967 provincial election. He served as a chief assistant to provincial opposition leader and future Premier Peter Lougheed and served in the office of federal opposition leader Robert Stanfield, learning the inner workings of Parliament. He then successfully ran in the 1972 federal election and was elected to Parliament as the MP for Rocky Mountain, a largely rural riding in southwestern Alberta.
Clark had initially been viewed with suspicion, but over time won over senior members of the party. Robert Stanfield initially thought Clark not to be fit for politics, but over time came to view him as leadership material. Erik Nielsen viewed Clark as fiercely partisan, but was impressed by Clark's questioning the government.
Clark's social liberalism put him at odds with the right-wing members of his caucus, several of whom were not afraid to confront him. For example, in the lead-up to the 1979 election, the bulk of Clark's riding was merged into the newly created riding of Bow River during a redistribution of ridings. Fellow Tory MP Stanley Schumacher had much of his old riding of Palliser merged into Bow River as well. Even though Clark was now party leader, Schumacher refused to step aside in Clark's favour, forcing Clark to run in nearby Yellowhead.
Progressive Conservative leadership convention, 1976
Following the resignation of PC party leader Robert Stanfield, Clark sought and won the leadership of the PC Party at the 1976 leadership convention. Initially, the favourite among Red Tories was Flora MacDonald; however, she did worse than expected, while Clark placed a surprising third in a field of eleven on the first ballot of convention delegates, behind only Claude Wagner and Brian Mulroney. MacDonald dropped off after the second ballot, encouraging her supporters to support Clark, who quickly became the compromise Red Tory candidate. The party's right-wing rallied behind Wagner. Mulroney, a Quebec businessman with no elected political experience, was unable to expand his base of support significantly. As other Red Tory candidates were eliminated during the first four ballots, Clark gradually overtook Mulroney and then Wagner to emerge as the victor on the fourth ballot, by 1,187 votes to 1,122.Clark, who won the Tory leadership at age 36, remains the youngest leader of a major federal party in the history of Canadian politics. With many veteran Tories having been defeated in the 1968 election, the party effectively skipped a generation by selecting Clark as its new leader.
Opposition leader (1976–1979)
Clark's rapid rise from a relatively unknown Alberta MP to the Leader of the Opposition took much of Canada by surprise. The Toronto Star announced Clark's victory with a headline that read "Joe Who?", giving Clark a nickname that stuck for years. His clumsiness and awkward mannerisms were mocked by some political commentators, such as cartoonist Andy Donato who typically drew Clark with mittens on strings hanging from his suit sleeves.However, Clark hired experienced staffers such as Lowell Murray, Duncan Edmonds, and William Neville, who shaped his policies and ran his office. He improved his party's standing in national opinion polls. Clark gradually earned the respect of some political observers, including his own caucus, and benefited when live television came to the House of Commons in 1977. Some observers noted that Clark, despite being perceived by many people as something of a square, showed biting wit at times while in Opposition. One of his most famous quips was: "A recession is when your neighbour loses his job. A depression is when you lose your job. Recovery is when Pierre Trudeau loses his job." Television broadcasts of Question Period in the House of Commons served to build Clark and the Tories up as an alternative to the Liberals.
1979 federal election
Large budget deficits, high inflation, and high unemployment made the Liberal government unpopular. Trudeau had put off asking the Canadian Governor General to call an election as long as possible, in the hope that his party could recover popular support but it backfired, as there was growing public antipathy towards his perceived arrogance. Clark campaigned on the slogans, "Let's get Canada working again", and "It's time for a change—give the future a chance!"In the latter half of the campaign, the Liberals focused their attacks on Clark's perceived inexperience. Their advertisements declared "This is no time for on-the-job training", and "We need tough leadership to keep Canada growing. A leader must be a leader." Clark played into their hands by appearing bumbling and unsure in public.
When Clark undertook a tour of the Middle East in order to show his ability to handle foreign affairs issues, his luggage was lost, and Clark appeared to be uncomfortable with the issues being discussed. That incident was widely lampooned by Toronto Sun cartoonist Andy Donato. During the same tour, while inspecting a military honour guard, Clark turned too soon and nearly bumped into a soldier's bayonet; one of the first major media reports on the incident claimed, with some exaggeration, that he had nearly been beheaded.
Despite Clark being bilingual, the Tories were unable to make much headway in Quebec, which continued to be federally dominated by the Liberals. While Clark's 1976 leadership rivals were prominent in that province, Claude Wagner had left politics, while Brian Mulroney was still bitter about his loss and turned down an offer to serve under Clark.
Nonetheless, Clark's Progressive Conservatives won 136 seats to end sixteen continuous years of Liberal rule in the election for the 31st Canadian Parliament. Despite receiving fewer votes than the Liberals nationally, the Progressive Conservatives won the popular vote in seven provinces. They also made gains in Ontario, particularly in the Toronto suburbs, winning many seats by narrow margins, offsetting a large Liberal win in Quebec. The Tories were only able to win two seats in Quebec, leaving them six seats short of a majority. The Liberals lost 27 seats, including several high-profile cabinet ministers, and Trudeau announced his intention to step down as party leader.