Clark, Charles Joseph

Clark, Charles Joseph ( ‘Joe’ Clark) (b. 5 June 1939). Prime Minister of Canada 1979 Born at High River, Alberta, he went to the University of Alberta, when he became national Progressive Conservative student president before taking a master's degree in political science. He worked for the party until he was elected to the House of Commons in 1972. Despite his position on the progressive wing, he emerged as leader of a party riven with internal divisions in 1976. He formed a minority government in May 1979, when he became the country's youngest Prime Minister, and the first to come from the western provinces. His major policy proposals, such as the privatization of the national petroleum company, Petro-Canada, were inappropriate for his weak parliamentary position. Following the parliamentary rejection of his austere budget he lost a vote of confidence in December 1979, which paved the way for the Liberal election victory under Trudeau in 1980. He was an effective leader of the opposition, but as a progressive never commanded the full support of his entire party, which replaced him with Mulroney in 1983. He remained an active ‘elder statesman’ within his party, and became Minister of External Affairs under Mulroney. In 1991 he was named Minister for Constitutional Affairs, with the task of putting together a constitutional package in the aftermath of the failure of the Meech Lake Accord. The resulting Charlottetown Accord (1992) was defeated in a referendum by six provinces and one territory, and Clark announced that he would not run in the 1993 election. He returned to active politics in 1998, when he was elected to head the Progressive Conservative Party. He regained his seat in the House of Commons in 2000, but his party obtained a meagre thirteen seats. In 2002 he announced his resignation as party leader for 2003.