Christy Clark

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christy Clark (2011)

Christina Joan "Christy" Clark (born October 29, 1965 in Burnaby , British Columbia ) is a former Canadian politician . From March 14, 2011 to July 18, 2017, she was Prime Minister of the Province of British Columbia and Chairperson of the British Columbia Liberal Party ; she resigned the office of party chairman a few weeks after her resignation as prime minister on August 4, 2017. She was a member of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly from 1996 to 2005 , during which time she held several ministerial posts in Gordon Campbell's provincial government.

biography

Minister of Education

Clark studied political science and religious studies at Simon Fraser University , the Sorbonne and the University of Edinburgh , but did not graduate. On May 28, 1996 she was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia for the Port Moody-Burnaby Mountain constituency. She initially belonged to the opposition and appeared as a spokeswoman for the areas of environment, family policy and public services. After the Liberals won the election on May 16, 2001, the new Prime Minister Gordon Campbell appointed them his deputy and education minister. Three years later she also took over the family ministry.

As Secretary of Education, Clark wanted to reform the BC College of Teachers , but met fierce opposition from the British Columbia Teachers' Federation . In 2002, she signed two laws that forced teachers to stop their strike and forbade collective bargaining. Nine years later, the Provincial Supreme Court ruled Clark's decisions unconstitutional. On September 17, 2004, Clark temporarily withdrew from politics for family reasons and did not stand for the 2005 election. As early as August 2005, she sought nomination as a candidate for the Non-Partisan Association for the mayoral election of Vancouver , but was subject to Sam Sullivan who later won the election. From August 2007 to December 2010, Clark hosted a program named after her on weekdays at the radio station CKNW in Vancouver (The Christy Clark Show) . She also wrote columns for The Province and The Vancouver Sun newspapers .

Prime minister

After Gordon Campbell announced his early resignation as prime minister and party chairman on November 3, 2010, Clark announced her candidacy for his successor five weeks later. During the campaign, she presented herself as an outsider, independent of the government at the time, and the only one able to bring about the change that voters wanted. At the Liberal Party conference on February 26, 2011, she prevailed in the third ballot with 52% of the vote against Health Minister Kevin Falcon . Although she had led in most of the opinion polls, her election was surprising, as she was not a member of the provincial parliament at the time and had only been publicly supported by a backbencher from the parliamentary group. On March 14, 2011, Clark took office as head of government and party chairman. Her predecessor Campbell announced a day later that she would also resign as a member of parliament so that she could run a by-election in his constituency of Vancouver-Point Gray . Their extremely narrow victory on May 11, 2011 (564 votes ahead) was the first by-election success of a ruling party in 30 years.

In September 2012, several influential group members (including four ministers) announced that they would withdraw from politics, causing a minor crisis of confidence within the party. Two months later, former Liberal Minister John van Dongen accused the Prime Minister of having had a conflict of interest in connection with the controversial sale of BC Rail . In April 2013, a judge from the independent commission of inquiry ruled that the allegations were incorrect. Before the new election on May 13, 2013, all polling institutes predicted a clear defeat for the Liberals. Contrary to all expectations, they remained the strongest force and were even able to expand their majority slightly. In their own constituency, however, Clark was defeated by NDP candidate David Eby with a difference of 785 votes. She remained Prime Minister, but was not allowed to attend parliamentary sessions. Thereupon the MP Ben Stewart resigned, in order to enable her in his constituency Westside-Kelowna (a liberal stronghold), a by-election. Clark competed there on July 10, 2013 and won with 62% of the vote.

In the May 9, 2017 election, Clark was re-elected in Westside-Kelowna. The Liberal Party won only 43 out of 87 constituencies and thus missed a majority by one seat. The NDP got 41 seats, the Green Party of British Columbia 3 seats. Clark then sought coalition negotiations with the Greens in order to still gain a majority. The Green Party announced on May 29th that it had reached an agreement with the opposition NDP. Clark then called a parliamentary session. Your minority government was overthrown on June 29, 2017 by a vote of no confidence (44 to 42 votes). She still tried to apply for an early election to Lieutenant Governor Judith Guichon , but was unsuccessful. Instead, Guichon gave NDP chairman John Horgan the task of forming a government. The handover took place on July 18th.

Private

Clark is divorced and has one son.

literature

  • Robert Shaw, Richard Zussman: A Matter of Confidence. The Inside Story of the Political Battle for BC . Heritage, 2018 (= Christy Clark's Rise and Fall)

Web links

Commons : Christy Clark  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jonathan Fowlie: Christy Clark, a politician first. The Vancouver Sun , April 27, 2013, accessed November 18, 2013 .
  2. ^ Katie Hyslop: When Christy Clark Ran BC's Schools. The Tyee, January 28, 2011, accessed November 18, 2013 .
  3. ↑ Pablo Carlito: Christy Clark's legacy of education cuts lingers in BC Georgia Straight, December 1, 2010, archived from the original on September 3, 2014 ; accessed on November 18, 2013 .
  4. ^ A b Vanessa Richmond: Christy Clark and the Woman Politician Thing. The Tyee, December 9, 2010, accessed November 18, 2013 .
  5. ↑ Mark Leiren-Young: Man in Wheelchair Runs over Christy Clark! The Tyee, September 26, 2005, accessed November 18, 2013 .
  6. ^ Ian Bailey: Clark says only she can bring real change to BC Liberals. The Globe and Mail , February 19, 2011, accessed November 18, 2013 .
  7. ^ Petti Fong: Christy Clark will be new BC premier. Toronto Star , February 26, 2011, accessed August 28, 2012 .
  8. ^ Gordon Campbell steps down as MLA. CBC News, March 15, 2011, accessed March 27, 2011 .
  9. ^ Ian Bailey: BC Premier Clark narrowly avoids political disaster with by-election win. The Globe and Mail , May 12, 2011, accessed November 18, 2013 .
  10. ^ Petti Fong: Christy Clark expects more BC Liberal resignations. Toronto Star , September 2, 2012, accessed November 18, 2013 .
  11. ^ Christy Clark target of BC Rail-related complaint. CBC News, November 7, 2012, accessed November 18, 2013 .
  12. ↑ Jonathan Fowlie: Christy Clark cleared of conflict in BC Rail sale. The Vancouver Sun , April 10, 2013, accessed November 18, 2013 .
  13. ↑ Dirk Meissner: BC's Premier Christy Clark wins byelection, returns to legislature. Toronto Star , July 11, 2013, accessed November 18, 2013 .
  14. ^ Justin McElroy: BC Liberals hang on to power, could form minority government. CBC News, May 9, 2017, accessed July 3, 2017 .
  15. ^ Justin McElroy: Timeline: the BC Election that took 52 days. CBC News, June 29, 2017, accessed July 3, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Clark, Christy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Clark, Christina Joan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian politician
DATE OF BIRTH October 29, 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH Burnaby