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Joe Clark
(photo by Ted Grant)
Joe Clark with daughter Catherine
Joe Clark
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The biography traces Clark’s
roots in High River, Alberta, where he grew up imbued with
small town Prairie values. Brother Peter recalls a studious
boy - a teenaged Tory who modelled himself after John Diefenbaker,
and who would later adopt the Chief’s bombastic style.
Clark seemed born to politics. His rise through party ranks
was swift – from MP to party leader. Then in 1979, he
did the impossible – beating out the charismatic Pierre
Elliot Trudeau to become Canada’s 16th Prime Minister
– the youngest in Canadian history. But victory was
short-lived. Months later, Clark’s minority government
would be defeated in a vote of non-confidence.
Life and Times of Joe Clark chronicles a turbulent political
career, and includes a revealing interview with Clark’s
former rival and colleague, Brian Mulroney. It also explores
the image problem that would plague Clark throughout his career.
His earnest, overblown style made him easy fodder for a hostile
media, who ridiculed him as awkward and inept. “I don’t
know that we were that unfair,” says cartoonist Terry
Mosher, who delighted in Clark ’s foibles. “I
think we’re all secretly fond of Joe.” In candid
interviews, wife Maureen McTeer and daughter Catherine Clark
bring to light the funny prankster and the thoughtful man.
LIFE AND TIMES reveals a private man at odds with the somewhat
stuffy public persona – humorous, self-deprecating and
fond of practical jokes. A decent man and that rarest of public
figures – a politician with integrity.
Original Air Date - May 27, 2003
Links
Joe
Clark: A Canadian Statesman (The PC Party of Canada)
(Note: CBC does not endorse the content of external
sites)
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