Friday, May 14, 2004
Alas, Poor Joe, We Knew Ye Not Nearly Well Enough
On the eve of his retirement from a distinguished career in public service, the Right Honourable C. Joseph "Joe" Clark identified the negotiation of the failed Charlottetown Accord as his greatest accomplishment. While it's somehow fitting that Clark's self-declared greatest accomplishment was rejected emphatically by Canadians, in even giving it the title he was wrong.
Joe Clark was wrong a lot in his years in politics, especially on the big issues. His "Community of Communities" approach to the Canadian federation can only be described as "wimpy." More recently, he was the only federalist politician to prominantly oppose Jean Chrétien's Clarity Bill, which brought some (though not enough) clarity to the question of Québec seccession.
But he was often right on the day-to-day stuff - the stuff that historians forget. For example, in the budget that brought down his short-lived government, Clark made the first effort to bring the country's mounting government deficit under control - fifteen years before it became fashionable. He also showed a greater openness to the press than the Trudeau government before him ever had, as evidenced by small moves such as providing chairs for the media to sit in while they waited for Cabinet meetings to adjourn. When Canadians had to remove Clark's government in 1980 - and they did, for there was a referendum to be won and a constitution to be patriated, and, to put things in a Will Ferguson sort of a way, these tasks called for a bastard, not a bonehead - they were condemning themselves to decades more of arrogance and politicking, not just because they restored the supremely arrogant Pierre Trudeau to 24 Sussex, but because they forced a leadership confrontation within the Progressive Conservatives that led to Brian Mulroney winning the title.
More significantly, he epitomized the virtues of humility and integrity, qualities which are not abundantly present in politicians. My favourite Clark line, and the one that I always thought summed up his approach to politics, was "I distrust words like vision and grand design. I expect to do no more than move the country forward on some priorities." This quote perfectly contrasted him with his rival Trudeau, who went into politics to save the country. Indeed, comparisons with Trudeau, against whom Clark sparred for eight years before Trudeau's retirement and intermittently after, are both inevitable and revealing. Trudeau had guts. He didn't flinch in the face of violent separatist rioters, power-mad premiers, or unfavourable opinion polls. Clark was perceived as a wimp.
In a way, though, he too had courage in great measure. When delegates at a 1983 party convention gave him a 66% vote of support. Clark, deciding that it wasn't enough to truly claim the confidence of the party, called a leadership convention to decide matters. He was one of the Western world's most outspoken critics of apartheid in South Africa. When Clark, once again Tory leader in 2000, needed to find a seat to get himself elected to the House of Commons, he chose to run in Alliance-dominated Alberta instead of a more PC-friendly maritime province, because that was his home. A practising Catholic, he was the first Prime Minister to marshall a gay pride parade - in Calgary, no less. In a final act of political courage, when the entire Progressive Conservative membership except David Orchard and I was clamouring in favour of accepting a takeover by the Canadian Alliance, Joe was the face of opposition to the merger. When he lost, as he inevitably did, he elected to sit as an independent, scorning the perverse Ottawa value of loyalty to party above all else - an ideal that he spurned once more by stating the obvious, that the Martin-led Liberals were a better fit for Red Tories such as himself than the Harper-led Conservatives.
Clark's critics alleged that this last move was a cynical attempt to win himself a patronage post from the Martin's government. If it was, it worked - Martin offered him a wide selection of diplomatic appointments, and he turned them all down.
On a personal level, I met Joe Clark once, though it was a pretty uneventful meeting. The greater impact he had on me was in being the cause of my joining a political party for the first time in my life.
Joe Clark liked to think of himself as a politician ahead of his time. Sadly, I suspect that he's the sort of politician whose time never truly comes - there will always be a Trudeau or a Mulroney waiting in the wings to make Canadians forget the importance of integrity and humility.
Oh well. Thanks, Joe.
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On the eve of his retirement from a distinguished career in public service, the Right Honourable C. Joseph "Joe" Clark identified the negotiation of the failed Charlottetown Accord as his greatest accomplishment. While it's somehow fitting that Clark's self-declared greatest accomplishment was rejected emphatically by Canadians, in even giving it the title he was wrong.
Joe Clark was wrong a lot in his years in politics, especially on the big issues. His "Community of Communities" approach to the Canadian federation can only be described as "wimpy." More recently, he was the only federalist politician to prominantly oppose Jean Chrétien's Clarity Bill, which brought some (though not enough) clarity to the question of Québec seccession.
But he was often right on the day-to-day stuff - the stuff that historians forget. For example, in the budget that brought down his short-lived government, Clark made the first effort to bring the country's mounting government deficit under control - fifteen years before it became fashionable. He also showed a greater openness to the press than the Trudeau government before him ever had, as evidenced by small moves such as providing chairs for the media to sit in while they waited for Cabinet meetings to adjourn. When Canadians had to remove Clark's government in 1980 - and they did, for there was a referendum to be won and a constitution to be patriated, and, to put things in a Will Ferguson sort of a way, these tasks called for a bastard, not a bonehead - they were condemning themselves to decades more of arrogance and politicking, not just because they restored the supremely arrogant Pierre Trudeau to 24 Sussex, but because they forced a leadership confrontation within the Progressive Conservatives that led to Brian Mulroney winning the title.
More significantly, he epitomized the virtues of humility and integrity, qualities which are not abundantly present in politicians. My favourite Clark line, and the one that I always thought summed up his approach to politics, was "I distrust words like vision and grand design. I expect to do no more than move the country forward on some priorities." This quote perfectly contrasted him with his rival Trudeau, who went into politics to save the country. Indeed, comparisons with Trudeau, against whom Clark sparred for eight years before Trudeau's retirement and intermittently after, are both inevitable and revealing. Trudeau had guts. He didn't flinch in the face of violent separatist rioters, power-mad premiers, or unfavourable opinion polls. Clark was perceived as a wimp.
In a way, though, he too had courage in great measure. When delegates at a 1983 party convention gave him a 66% vote of support. Clark, deciding that it wasn't enough to truly claim the confidence of the party, called a leadership convention to decide matters. He was one of the Western world's most outspoken critics of apartheid in South Africa. When Clark, once again Tory leader in 2000, needed to find a seat to get himself elected to the House of Commons, he chose to run in Alliance-dominated Alberta instead of a more PC-friendly maritime province, because that was his home. A practising Catholic, he was the first Prime Minister to marshall a gay pride parade - in Calgary, no less. In a final act of political courage, when the entire Progressive Conservative membership except David Orchard and I was clamouring in favour of accepting a takeover by the Canadian Alliance, Joe was the face of opposition to the merger. When he lost, as he inevitably did, he elected to sit as an independent, scorning the perverse Ottawa value of loyalty to party above all else - an ideal that he spurned once more by stating the obvious, that the Martin-led Liberals were a better fit for Red Tories such as himself than the Harper-led Conservatives.
Clark's critics alleged that this last move was a cynical attempt to win himself a patronage post from the Martin's government. If it was, it worked - Martin offered him a wide selection of diplomatic appointments, and he turned them all down.
On a personal level, I met Joe Clark once, though it was a pretty uneventful meeting. The greater impact he had on me was in being the cause of my joining a political party for the first time in my life.
Joe Clark liked to think of himself as a politician ahead of his time. Sadly, I suspect that he's the sort of politician whose time never truly comes - there will always be a Trudeau or a Mulroney waiting in the wings to make Canadians forget the importance of integrity and humility.
Oh well. Thanks, Joe.
