Joe Clark

Biographical Information

Prime Minister, Canada 1979-80
Secretary of State for External Affairs 1984-1991

Joe Clark was elected Prime Minister of Canada in the general election of 1979 and served later as Secretary of State for External Affairs (Foreign Minister). Joe Clark was also Minister of Constitutional Affairs and Acting Minister of both National Defence and Justice.

He served twice as Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, and as National Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. The Right Honourable Joe Clark was elected eight times to the House of Commons of Canada, retiring in June 2004.

Activity after public politics

Mr. Clark has served as Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Cyprus. He belongs to a number of public policy organisations and international NGOs and has led or co-led Election Observation teams in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Lebanon. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley and American University in Washington, DC, a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and is author of the book “Canada: A Nation Too Good To Lose”.

Mr. Clark is a Companion of the Order of Canada, a member of the Alberta Order of Excellence, and l’Ordre de la Pleiades, and has been awarded several honorary degrees. He was the first recipient of the Vimy Award (which is presented to the Canadian citizen who has made an outstanding contribution to the security of Canada and the preservation of its democratic values).

Mr. Clark is President of Joe Clark and Associates, an international consulting firm based in Canada, and Professor of Practice for Public-Private Sector Partnerships in the Institute for the Study of International Development at McGill University in Montreal.

Memberships and Associations

• Vice-chairman of Stratus Royalty Corporation
• Board Member of Triton Logging Incorporated
• Board Member of GlobeScan Incorporated
• Board Member of Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific
• Member of the Inter-American Dialogue
• Member of the Friends of the Inter-American Democratic Charter
• Member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University, Montreal
• Member of the Advisory Board of Save the Children Canada
• Member of the Panel of Senior Advisors to the Auditor General of Canada