by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
May 3, 2004
Canada’s 16th prime minister has chosen not to go out in style. The 63-year-old Joe Clark, who is not running in the next election, appeared on CTV and told a shocked audience that he would rather see Paul Martin remain as prime minister, than Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper assume the office. The lifelong Progressive Conservative thinks that Canadians are better off with the devil we know, than the devil we don’t and described Paul Martin as the lesser of two evils. Joe sure likes to refer to the dark side. Clark even went so far as to label Harper "dangerous".
as is often said about Yassir arafat, Charles Joseph Clark never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. When he won a minority government back in 1979, the youngest ever Canadian prime minister had a chance to end the high spending, high taxing, Communist-loving era of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. But the arrogant Clark assumed office with his "my way or the highway" philosophy and told the nation that even though he only had a minority government, he was going to govern as if he had a majority. Somehow that pronouncement didn’t reach a young NDP MP, future Ontario premier Bob Rae, who introduced a non-confidence motion in the House. after a bare nine months in office, the Clark Tories fell and although no one was exactly shouting for it, Canadians ended up with "four more years" of Liberal government waste.
Yet Clark managed to resurrect himself, something that is not unusual for those who are forced to leave office under less than ideal circumstances. The classic example is Richard Nixon who, after being forced to resign the presidency of the United States, spent his declining years as an elder statesman. Joe Clark ended up being Minister of External affairs in the next Progressive Conservative government and became one of the most respected ministers in Brian Mulroney’s cabinet.
after Joe won the PC leadership for the second time and won a seat, he showed that he was one of the most able Parliamentarians in the House. He was relentless in Question Period, going after the Liberals on everything from Shawinigate to adscam. Then there were talks about merging the Progressive Conservative Party with the Canadian alliance and poor Joe lost it.
Much like he was when he was prime minister; thinking that he had a majority when he didn’t; he simply couldn’t face reality. The PCs were reduced to only two seats in the 1993 election and remained an inconsequential 4th or 5th place party until the merger occurred. But Joe continued to think of the Progressive Conservatives as the grand old party of Sir John a. McDonald, representing a broad base of Canadians from sea to sea to shining sea who were just waiting to elect it. Clark fought the proposed merger every step of the way, insisting that his wonderful party was going to be subsumed by, as PM Elinor Caplan would say, the racists, bigots and holocaust deniers of the Canadian alliance. When the merger did occur, Clark refused to join the new party and is spending the remainder of this current parliamentary session, sitting in the corner as an independent.
although Clark’s archaic views of the days of glory past were well known, it was still surprising to see him say what he said in public. Clark indicated that he would work for both Liberal and Conservative candidates in the upcoming election and would even support former NDP leader Ed Broadbent’s post-retirement run. Joe’s going to find it awfully hard to find a Conservative candidate that will go anywhere near him.
In his political life, Joe Clark has gone from a promising career at the top, to a befuddled prime minister, to an excellent representative of Canada, to an embittered old man. It’s really unfortunate that he simply didn’t make a graceful exit when he found that he couldn’t tolerate the way his party was going. He became like the aging athlete who doesn’t realize that it is time to pack it in. In all probability, Joe Clark will be remembered, not as the great parliamentarian that he was, but as an embittered old man.
Tony Clement, former Conservative leadership candidate probably put it best. In commenting about Clark’s newfound political enlightenment, Clement said, "It’s sad. and here’s the saddest comment: It really doesn’t matter."
It really doesn’t.