Monday, May 20, 2002
Forever Liberal - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- It’s easy to make fun of Joe Clark. Even after besting Claude Wagner, Brian Mulroney and Flora MacDonald in the Tory leadership race called for someone to succeed Robert Stanfield, he was still dubbed by Canadians as “Joe who?” He did manage to finagle the government from Pierre Trudeau in 1979, but only managed to snag a minority government. A minority government that, thanks to a bungled budget, fell after only nine months. Clark was Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition during the Trudeau redux, where his own ministry became merely a footnote in the history of Canadian politics. In 1983, he asked his party for a vote of confidence in his leadership. He got 66.1% in 1981, and said if he failed to improve on that, he’d resign. 1983’s result was 66.7%, a fraction over his benchmark, yet he decided to bag his leadership and try to succeed himself. There’s a story that at a state dinner, Prince Charles bluntly asked Clark, “What’s wrong with 66.7%?”
Well, we know what happened in 1983. Joe Clark wanted to retain the leadership and was joined in the race by a blunt and colourful Newfoundlander named John C. Crosbie; and a smarmy and slick glad handler from Baie Comeau, Brian Mulroney. Crosbie, of course, was the finance minister responsible for the downfall of the Clark interregnum; and more infamously remembered when asked if he could speak French, “Well, I don’t speak Chinese either.”
Joe Clark lost. And with Mulroney heading the Tories, it he who trounced Trudeau’s successor John Turner in the 1984 election. For the next nine years it was Brian Mulroney as prime minister. Joe Clark served with distinction in his cabinet, as minister of state for external affairs and constitutional affairs minister responsible for constructing the Charlottetown Accord. Clark retired in 1993, the same year Mulroney fled and his successor Kim Campbell oversaw their beloved Tory party’s evaporation to two seats.
In 1997, Jean Charest took the Tories from two seats to 20, and the next year was wooed to head the Quebec Liberal party. Joe Clark was wooed back into federal politics, and he ran to claim the leadership he lost 15 years earlier. In a race that signalled the end of the Tories’ significance, Clark ran against former backroom boy Hugh Segal, and rabid anti-free trader David Orchard. (Orchard, if I am not mistaken, came in second.) Clark won easily yet dithered for nearly two years before attempting to take a seat in the House of Commons. Some of his safe MPs in Atlantic Canada wanted to step aside to allow their Right Honourable leader into the House. However when Stockwell Day became Canadian Alliance leader and duly attempted a by-election, Clark was pressured to do the same. As Ski-doo Day ran and won in Okanagan-Coquihalla, Clark was parachuted in Kings-Hants in Nova Scotia.
A couple months later, their seats barely warm, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien called a general election. Clark declared he’d seek to win a seat in Calgary, where the Tories have been dormant since 1988. Well, he pulled off the impossible and now represents Calgary Centre in the House.
His colleague Rex Barnes won the recent by-election in Newfoundland much to everyone’s surprise. This set off some whispers that now that the Tories had 13 seats, one more than the minimum to be recognised in the House, Clark would retire from active politics. The Globe and Mail printed a front-page piece on the possibility that Clark was considering leaving. Other whispers have been that the Tories are considering sending him off with a healthy retirement package -- payment for services rendered I guess. (It’s odd because Clark is being paid to serve as leader of the Conservative Party. As far as I can remember, I believe that Clark is the only federal leader to receive an additional income from his party.)
Well, following the Globe piece, Joe Clark’s office emphatically released a statement saying the Rt. Hon. Joe has promises to stay on, and seek a new mandate from his party in their August National General meeting. He also plans on staying on into the next fight, “so that Canadians will have a choice in the next federal election.” And he’s in fighting form, as this past Saturday he exposed more Liberal corruption in the Groupaction scheme.
Joe Clark is a proud man, and has rightfully staved off any conciliation or major cohesion with the Canadian Alliance. He likes to talk unity and has had the chance to form a coalition with the Alliance dissidents. However, all (but one) of the dissidents have gone back, and all Joe Clark wants is the Alliance to implode and join the Tories. Of course, Westerners who voted against Charlottetown and distinct society -- Clark’s main contributions to this country -- will never resign themselves to joining Joe’s outfit.
It’s hard to hate Joe Clark. He’s a nice man who’s worked to articulate his vision of Canada. It may be an incorrect conception of this country, but his dedication and loyalty to Canada is undeniable. His sacrifices -- to the cackles of political watchers -- have been admirable. He’s kept the Tories afloat, and though their vote slipped further than their 1993 result, he’s still pulling off miracles. Without the Alliance and Tories united in the electoral sense, anytime soon, the country is forever at the behest of the Liberals for some time to come.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .