1 Political career

Clark was first elected to Parliament in the 1972 federal election. Following the resignation of PC party leader Robert Stanfield, Clark sought and won the leadership of the PC Party at the 1976 leadership convention. Although he placed third in a field of eleven on the first ballot of convention delegates, behind Claude Wagner and Brian Mulroney, he 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. Many delegates were offended by his expensive leadership campaign. 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 fifth ballot.

Joe 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. Much joking was made of Clark's clumsiness and awkward mannerisms. Skinny and tall, editorial cartoonists portrayed him as a sort of walking candy apple, with an enormous head and floppy dog-like ears. Initially, it seemed unlikely that a man that was the source of so much mockery could ever hope to compete against the confident and intellectual Pierre Trudeau.

However, Clark remained belligerent in his attacks on the Trudeau government, angrily clashing with the prime minister in Parliament. Trudeau's attempts to brush off Clark were seen by many Canadians as examples of the pompous attitude of a prime minister who had taken his position for granted.

1.1 Prime minister

Clark's efforts would prove successful, and on June 4, 1979, at age 39, he became Canada's youngest prime minister, after defeating Trudeau's Liberal government in the May 1979 general election. of May 1979. Clark was the first Conservative to head Canada's federal government since the defeat of John Diefenbaker in the 1963 election.

But with a minority government in the House of Commons, Clark had to rely on the support of the Social Credit Party with its 6 seats or the New Democratic Party with its 26 seats. Without this support, he was subject to defeat by the Liberals at any time.

Social Credit was below the 12 seats needed for official party status in the House of Commons. However, the six seats would have been just enough to give Clark's government a majority had the Progressive Conservatives formed a coalition government with Social Credit, or had the two parties otherwise agreed to work together.

Clark refused to grant the small Social Credit caucus official party status, however, or form a coalition or co-operate with the party in any way. This led to the Clark government's defeat in the House of Commons in December 1979. The Liberals voted with the NDP on a Motion of No Confidence related to the Clark government's budget, moved by NDP MP Bob Rae. The Social Credit caucus abstained, thus ensuring the vote's passage. Though Clark was criticized for his "inability to do math" in failing to predict the vote, at the same time the collapse was at least partially welcomed by his party. When a new election was called, the PC Party expected to be able to defeat the demoralized and leaderless Liberals easily.

During the 1979 election campaign. Clark had promised to cut taxes to stimulate the economy. However, once in office he adopted a budget designed to curb inflation by slowing economic activity, and he also proposed an 18 cent per Imperial gallon tax on gasoline in order to reduce the budgetary deficit. Though Clark had hoped this change in policy would work to his advantage, it actually earned him widespread animosity as a politician who could not keep his promises, even in such a short period.

Pierre Trudeau quickly rescinded his resignation from the Liberal leadership, and swept the Liberal party back into power in the February 1980 election with 146 seats, against 103 for Clark and the Progressive Conservatives.

1.2 Mulroney years

In 1983, after declaring that an endorsement by 66 per cent of delegates at the party's biennial convention was "not enough", Clark called a Progressive Conservative leadership convention to decide the issue. After a heated campaign, he led on the first three ballots before losing on the final ballot to arch-rival Brian Mulroney. Mulroney won a huge victory in the 1984 election, and became prime minister.

Despite their personal differences, Clark served in Mulroney's cabinet, first as secretary of state for external affairs, then as president of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada and minister responsible for constitutional affairs. The latter position saw him play a leading role in the drafting of the failed Charlottetown Accord. He retired from politics in 1993, side-stepping the near annihilation of the PC party in the 1993 election under the leadership of Mulroney's successor Kim Campbell.

1.3 Second PC leadership

One of the two PC candidates to survive the 1993 wipe-out, Jean Charest, became leader of the PC party following Campbell's resignation. After leading the party to modest success in the 1997 election, winning 20 seats, Charest bowed to tremendous public pressure and left federal politics to become leader of the Parti libéral du Québec (unaffiliated with the federal Liberals).

The PC Party had no obvious candidate to fill Charest's shoes, and turned to Clark once again. In 1998, Clark returned as leader of the Progressive Conservatives. Clark was elected as Member of Parliament for Kings—Hants, Nova Scotia, in a by-election on September 11, 2000, and in the general election held two months later for Calgary Centre, Alberta. While the party had been expected to be wiped out again, Clark's strong performance in the leaders' debates drove the party to another modest success: the PC Party won exactly the 12 seats necessary to be recognized in the House of Commons as an official party and therefore qualify for research funding, committee memberships, and minimum speaking privileges. Aside from Clark's Calgary seat and one each in Manitoba and Quebec, the party's seats were concentrated in the Atlantic provinces.

Clark announced his intention to step down as PC leader on August 6, 2002, and was replaced by Peter MacKay on May 31, 2003. Although Clark and Mulroney had long been perceived as bitter opponents, Mulroney's speech at the 2003 convention praised Clark as an honest and admirable leader who had the distinction of being the only prime minister in recent memory who, even when he failed, was always respected, and never hated, by the Canadian public.

On December 8, 2003, the day that the Progressive Conservatives merged with the Canadian Alliance to incorporate the new Conservative Party of Canada, Clark was one of three MPs -- the other two were André Bachand and John Herron -- to announce that they would not join the new caucus. Clark announced that he would sit for the remainder of the session as a Progressive Conservative MP after which he would retire from Parliament.

Later, Clark openly criticized the new Conservative Party in the run-up to the 2004 election. He backed the Liberal leader, Paul Martin, saying that Canadians should trust "the devil they know" over Stephen Harper. Clark also spoke against the new Conservative Party as an 'Alliance take-over', and that eastern Canada would not accept the new party or its more socially conservative policies against gay marriage and abortion. The Conservatives lost some seats in eastern Canada, winning 6 as opposed to the 10 held by the PCs prior to the merger. The new Conservatives remained largely based in the West (as the Alliance had been), making only moderate gains in Ontario and being completely shut out of Quebec in favour of the Liberals and the separatist Bloc Québécois.

In 1994 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Preceded by: Pierre Trudeau 1968-1979

Prime Minister of Canada 1979-1980

Followed by: Pierre Trudeau 1980-1984

Progressive Conservative leaders
Preceded by: Robert Stanfield	First leadership (1976-1983)	Followed by: Erik Nielsen
Preceded by: Elsie Wayne	Second leadership (1998-2003)	Followed by: Peter MacKay

Preceded by: Eric Lowther , Reform	Member of Parliament for Calgary Centre ( 2000- 2004)	Succeeded by: federal riding abolished in 2003
Preceded by: Scott Brison, PC	Member of Parliament for Kings—Hants ( 2000)	Succeeded by: Scott Brison, PC
Preceded by: federal riding created in 1976	Member of Parliament for Yellowhead ( 1979- 1993)	Succeeded by: Cliff Breitkreuz , Reform
Preceded by: Allen B. Sulatycky , Liberal	Member of Parliament for Rocky Mountain ( 1972- 1979)	Succeeded by: federal riding abolished in 1976

Prime Ministers of Canada
Macdonald | Mackenzie | Abbott | Thompson | Bowell | Tupper | Laurier | Borden | Meighen | King | Bennett | St. Laurent | Diefenbaker | Pearson | Trudeau | Clark | Turner | Mulroney | Campbell | Chrétien | Martin

Clark, Joe Clark, Joe Clark, Joe

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