CLARK, JOE

born June 5, 1939, High River, Alta., Can. Joseph Clark, 1979 byname of Charles Joseph Clark prime minister of Canada from June 1979 to March 1980, the youngest person ever to win the post. Clark obtained a B.A. in history (1960) and an M.A. in political science (1973) from the University of Alberta and taught political science there from 1965 to 1967. He had been active in politics since 1957 in support of the Progressive Conservative Party; and from 1962 to 1965 he was national president of the Progressive Conservative Student Federation. In 1967 he directed the campaign organization that brought Peter Lougheed to power as premier of Alberta, and from 1967 to 1970 he served as executive assistant to Robert Stanfield, then the Conservative leader in the House of Commons. Clark himself was first elected to Parliament in 1972, and he was elected leader of his party in 1976. In 1979 the Progressive Conservatives won a plurality of seats in Parliament, and Clark became head of a minority government. Only six months after he took office, however, his government fell on a budget question; and in the subsequent general elections in FebruaryMarch 1980, his party was defeated by the Liberals headed by Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Clark served as the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party until 1983. That year he held a formal leadership-selection meeting and was defeated by Brian Mulroney. Clark served in Mulroney's government as secretary of state for external affairs (198491) and president of the Queen's Privy Council (199193) before retiring from politics. He also served briefly (1993) as United Nations special representative to Cyprus.