Joe Clark

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Joe Clark (1979) Joe Clark Signature.svg

Charles Joseph "Joe" Clark PC , CC , AOE (born June 5, 1939 in High River , Alberta ) is a Canadian politician , journalist , entrepreneur and professor . He was the country's 16th prime minister . His term of office was short and lasted from June 4, 1979 to March 3, 1980. After he was elected as a member of the lower house in 1972 , he was elected chairman of the Progressive Conservative Party in 1976 . Clark's party won the 1979 general election. At 39, he was the youngest head of government in Canadian history. However, the progressive conservatives did not have the majority of the seats and lost a vote of no confidence after a little more than six months . In 1983 he had to hand over the chairmanship of the party to Brian Mulroney , but was part of his government from 1984 to 1993 and made important accents as foreign minister. In 1998 he took over the party leadership of the progressive conservatives again and was a second time MP from 2000 to 2004.

Early years

The son of the publisher of a local newspaper in Alberta went to school in High River and later to the University of Alberta , where he successfully completed his studies in political science with a bachelor's and later a master's degree. He had already gained experience as a journalist during his school days and became editor-in-chief of the student newspaper at the university. During his semester break he worked for the Edmonton Journal and the Canadian Press news agency . Clark then studied law at Dalhousie University in Halifax and at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver . However, he gave up this field of study after a year to work full-time for the Progressive Conservative Party .

In 1973, while still a student, he married Maureen McTeer , a feminist writer and lawyer. Three years later, their daughter Catherine Clark was born, who became a well-known media personality around the turn of the century.

Start of political career

Clark became politically active during his studies. He was first president of the youth organization of the Progressive Conservative Party at the University of Alberta, eventually also at the national level. He spent some time in France to improve his knowledge of the French language. In 1967 he ran for a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta , but to no avail. Clark worked as an assistant to future Provincial Prime Minister Peter Lougheed and Robert Stanfield , the federal opposition leader.

In 1971 Clark tried again to be elected to the legislative assembly, again without success. In the 1972 general election , however, he was successful and won in the constituency of Rocky Mountain , a predominantly rural area in southwest Alberta . Clark was the first Canadian politician to campaign for the decriminalization of marijuana use. His social-liberal stance met with strong rejection from the right wing of the party. When, for example, Clark's constituency was merged with the constituency of another progressive-conservative MP during a reallocation in 1979, the latter refused to vacate his seat and Clark was forced to run in the neighboring constituency of Yellowhead .

Opposition leader (1976–1979)

At the party conference of the progressive conservatives in Ottawa on February 22, 1976, Clark was one of eleven candidates to succeed the resigned Robert Stanfield as party chairman. In the first ballot, he reached third place. He was able to rally the social-liberal wing of the party and finally narrowly prevailed in the fifth ballot. He was 36 years old at the time, making him the youngest chairman of a federal party in Canadian history.

The election of the hitherto rather unknown Clark as party chairman and thus opposition leader came as a surprise to many. This is what the Toronto Star called the report of his win with Joe Who? (Joe Who?) Clark initially struggled to gain respect, especially since his party was defeated in several by-elections in May 1977 . Compared to the liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, he appeared colorless and clumsy, but was gradually able to overcome this impression with a convincing presence in the House of Commons.

Large budget deficits, high inflation and high unemployment rates made Trudeau's government increasingly unpopular. The prime minister tried to postpone the election as long as possible, hoping for an improvement. But this tactic did not work and Clark gained significantly in the opinion polls. In the 1979 general election , the progressive conservatives emerged as the strongest force, but missed a majority by six seats. The poor result in the province of Québec , where they could only win two seats, contributed to this.

Prime Minister (1979–1980)

Clark was sworn in as the new Prime Minister on June 4, 1979, the day before his 40th birthday. He was the youngest head of government in the history of Canada. In parliament he was dependent on the support of the Social Credit Party (Socreds) or the New Democratic Party (NDP).

Because of these circumstances, Clark couldn't make much difference. The election had taken place in May, but the next parliamentary session didn't start until October (one of the longest breaks ever). During the election campaign, he had promised to cut taxes to stimulate the economy. However, the budget included a new gasoline tax designed to reduce the deficit in the state budget. Clark now had the negative image of being a politician who could not keep his promises after a short time.

His refusal to cooperate with the Socreds quickly led to the fall of the government. On December 13, 1979, Bob Rae of the NDP submitted a vote of no confidence , which was accepted with 139 votes to 133. The Liberal Party and the NDP voted against the government, while the Socreds abstained and three MPs from the ruling party were absent. Shortly afterwards, Trudeau revoked his announced resignation as party chairman (in the meantime, no successor had been elected). He led the Liberals to victory in the early elections in February 1980. Clark stayed in office until March 3.

Again opposition leader (1980–1983)

After the election defeat, Clark's support in the progressive-conservative party waned. In 1981, 33.5% of the delegates at the party congress called for a new chairman to be elected. They were convinced that with Clark at the top, the next election would not be won. In January 1983, 33.1% called for his replacement. The fact that the approval rate had risen so little led Clark to announce his resignation and call another party conference. He finally wanted to create a clear picture and again made himself available as a candidate.

At the party congress on June 11, 1983, Clark was in first place in the first three ballots, but was defeated by his challenger Brian Mulroney in the fourth ballot with 45.5% of the vote . In December 2007 the arms dealer Karlheinz Schreiber testified that he and other donors (including the Bavarian Prime Minister Franz Josef Strauss and the Austrian entrepreneur Walter Wolf ) had given the Québec delegates massive financial support so that they could vote against Clark.

Minister in Mulroney's government (1984-1993)

The progressive conservatives won the 1984 general election with more than half of all votes cast. The new Prime Minister Mulroney appointed Clark Secretary of State on September 17, 1984, despite persistent personal differences.

Clark was very active in foreign policy. In 1984 he was the first foreign minister of a western state to travel to the then politically isolated, Marxist-ruled Ethiopia and to draw media attention to the catastrophic famine . He fought the apartheid regime in South Africa and advocated economic sanctions - at a time when the other G7 countries were opposed to such an approach. Clark firmly opposed the American intervention in Nicaragua and allowed refugees to be taken in from the countries ruled by military rulers, Guatemala and El Salvador . In 1988 he concluded the negotiations for the Canadian-American Free Trade Agreement , the forerunner of NAFTA .

On April 21, 1991, Clark was appointed Minister for Constitutional Affairs and President of the Privy Council. His task was to negotiate a new agreement on comprehensive constitutional reform with the provinces after the failure of the Meech Lake Accord . After an agreement negotiated in July 1992 in Québec met with little enthusiasm, further negotiations took place in August 1992. The resulting Charlottetown Accord was rejected in October 1992 in a nationwide referendum with 54% of the vote.

Clark retired from federal politics on June 24, 1993 and gave up his House of Commons mandate. As a result, he avoided the crushing defeat of the progressive conservatives, now led by Kim Campbell , in the 1993 general election . He then founded a consulting firm and sat on the boards of various Canadian companies. From 1993 to 1996 he was the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Cyprus .

Again party chairman (1998-2003)

In the meantime, Jean Charest led the party but could not bring it back to its old size. After his resignation in April 1998, there was no one to succeed him. So Clark decided to return to politics and reapplied for party leadership. He received the most votes in a teleconference on November 14, 1998. On September 11, 2000, he won a by-election in the Kings-Hants constituency in New Brunswick Province after Scott Brison left his seat. In the 2000 general election, which took place two months later , Clark Brison's seat was returned and was instead elected in the Calgary Center constituency in the province of Alberta . His party achieved the minimum number required to form a parliamentary group with twelve seats.

Clark resisted pressure from Stockwell Day and later from Stephen Harper to merge the Progressive-Conservative Party with the populist Canadian Alliance and thereby overcome the fragmentation of the right-wing political spectrum. Financial problems of the party and a sharp decline in membership, however, caused him to cede the office of party chairman on May 31, 2003 to Peter MacKay . MacKay then conducted negotiations with Harper, which ultimately led to the merger of the two parties on December 8, 2003. The newly formed Conservative Party was positioned too far to the right from Clark's point of view, which is why he and three other members of the lower house did not join it.

Withdrawal from politics

On May 23, 2004, Clark finally retired from politics. He was a lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and at the American University in Washington, DC. He also wrote numerous articles for various Canadian newspapers. In October 2006, McGill University in Montreal appointed him Professor of Public Private Partnership . He is a member of the Global Leadership Foundation and the Center for International Governance Innovation .

See also

Works by Joe Clark

  • Joe Clark: A Nation Too Good To Lose: Renewing The Purpose Of Canada . Key Porter Books, Toronto 1994, ISBN 1-55013-603-8 .
  • Joe Clark: Plaidoyer pour un pays mal aimé . Libre Expression, Montreal 1994, ISBN 2-89111-626-7 .
  • Joe Clark, Paul Voisey: High River and the Times: An Alberta Community and Its Weekly Newspaper, 1905-1966 . University of Alberta Press, Edmonton 2004, ISBN 0-88864-411-6 .

literature

  • David L. Humphreys: Joe Clark: A Portrait . Deneau and Greenberg, Toronto 1978, ISBN 0-00-216169-9 .
  • Michael Nolan: Joe Clark: The Emerging Leader . Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Toronto 1978, ISBN 0-88902-436-7 .
  • Warner Troyer: 200 Days: Joe Clark in Power . Personal Library, Toronto 1980, ISBN 0-920510-05-1 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Clark, Joe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Clark, Charles Joseph (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian politician
DATE OF BIRTH June 5, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH High River, Alberta