The Forgotten Prime Ministers

By: Kyle and Michael

Joe Clark John Turner Kim Campbell

Joe Clark• Such a modest, straightforward approach is unusual in politics, but entirely characteristic

of Joe Clark. Hard work at the grassroots of the Conservative party led him to become its leader and prime minister of Canada.

• Charles Joseph Clark was born in High River, Alberta in 1939, the son of a newspaper owner and editor. He began in journalism at a young age, delivering his father's High River Times, editing the high school newspaper and working as a sports writer for the Calgary Herald one summer. But politics soon proved to be a greater passion than journalism. At the University of Alberta he studied history, English and political science. Active in student politics, Clark's first taste of professional politics came in 1958 when he worked for Alan Lazerte, who was campaigning for leadership of the Alberta Progressive Conservative party.

• In 1962, he worked for Diefenbaker's election campaign. Clark's political activities carried on; he served as President of the Progressive Conservative Student Federation, as well as working for Davie Fulton in the B.C. election in 1963. The following year, Clark began an M.A. in political science at the University of Alberta, but was soon working for Peter Lougheed, the new provincial leader of the Conservatives. By this time, Clark's election experience was considerable and he was a key organizer in communications as well as contributing significantly to policy and strategy. Clark himself ran in the provincial election in 1967, for Calgary South. Held by the Social Credit Speaker of the legislature, it was a "suicide" seat, but Clark came within 462 votes of winning.

• Davie Fulton's federal leadership bid was Clark's next project. Fulton lost, but Clark was invited to work for the winner, Robert Stanfield. By 1971, Clark was back in Alberta trying to finish his M.A. but was again enticed by another political challenge: Conservative candidate for the federal riding of Rocky Mountain. He won the nomination and the Commons seat in 1972.

Cont.• In 1976, Clark entered the Conservative leadership race and won against political

heavyweights such as Claude Wagner and Flora MacDonald. As Leader of the Opposition, he set about reuniting his party, badly split since the Diefenbaker years, and reorganizing its structure. Like the previous P.C. leader, Robert Stanfield, Clark found Trudeau's charismatic image a difficult one to counter.

• Nevertheless, in 1979, the Conservatives won a minority government, and at the age of thirty-nine, Clark became Canada's youngest prime minister. After the extravagant public spending of the Liberals, the Conservatives were intent on fiscal restraint and one of their first pieces of legislation was a stringent budget of program cuts and tax increases. The New Democratic party would not support it and Clark's government was defeated, just seven months after they were elected.

• The 1980 election returned Clark and his party to the Opposition. His major role here was delaying Trudeau's 1981 constitutional reforms until federal-provincial agreement and judicial review had been reached. He called for a convention and lost to Brian Mulroney. Despite the bitterness such a situation can create, Clark remained in the party as an M.P. and strove to preserve party unity. When the Conservatives returned to power in 1984, Clark was made Minister of External Affairs.

• After leaving politics in 1993, he took a teaching position at the University of California, and worked as a consultant. Clark re-entered the political fray in 1998, becoming leader of the Progressive Conservative party, a position he held until May 2003.

Facts

• He ran for the Conservatives• He was born June 5, 1939 in High River, Alberta • He is the youngest Prime Minister

John TurnerJohn Napier Turner was born in 1929 in Richmond, Surrey, just outside of London, England

Turner attended Ashbury College and St. Patrick's. The family moved west and Turner enrolled at the University of British Columbia. When he graduated in 1949, he won a Rhodes Scholarship, so he studied law at Oxford. Turner then went to Paris to work on a doctorate at the University of Paris. In 1953, he came back to Vancouver to study for the Canadian bar. Turner then moved to Montreal to work for Stikeman and Elliott.

Turner enrolled into politics by Liberal Cabinet minister C.D. Howe. In 1957, Howe asked him to help in the election campaign. Three years later, Turner was invited to speak at a Liberal conference in Kingston. He was nominated as a candidate and won the election in June.

Once in Ottawa, Turner joined a group of vocal young Liberals advocating reforms in party policy.The Media called them ‘The Young Turks" Despite his rebel stance, Turner joined Prime Minister Lester Pearson's Cabinet in 1965 as Minister without Portfolio. By 1967, he was Minister of the newly created portfolio of Consumer and Corporate Affairs.

In 1968, Turner entered the leadership race, but lost to Pierre Trudeau. In the newly returned government, he was made Minister of Justice. After 4 years of his work he retired.

In 1972, he became Minister of Finance. Because of the liberal minority government. Turner continued as Minister of Finance after the 1974 election, a position he was beginning to like less and less. He resigned as Finance Minister in 1975 and left politics the following year. He returned to law, joining the Toronto firm of McMillan Binch.

Facts

• Full name is John Napier Turner • Born June 7, 1929, Richmond, Surrey, England • He was a lawyer• 1984 - 1990 Party Leader • Married in 1963 to Geills McCrae Kilgour• He has one daughter and three sons

Kim Campbell

• Prime Minister Brian Mulroney had announced his retirement, and Campbell was encouraged to run for party leader, and she won in a close contest at the convention in June. Kim Campbell became Canada's first female prime minister. However the Conservative mandate to govern had expired and Campbell had to call an election for October 1993. She bore most of voters' dissatisfaction with free trade, the GST, the constitutional fiascos and the economic recession. The Conservatives suffered an extraordinary defeat, reduced to just two seats in the House of Commons. Campbell herself lost her seat in Vancouver and retired from politics completely. The Liberals won 177 seats, which made the Opposition the Bloc Quebecois.

Facts

• Real name is Avril Phaedra Douglas Campbell• Changed her name to Kim when her mother left

the family, when she was 12• Born March 10th 1947 • 19th Prime Minister of Canada • Ran for Conservative

Movie Clips

Joe Clark

John Turner

Kim Campbell

Bibliography

• Wikipedia

• Collections Canada

• Text Book