Electoral history of Joe Clark

This article is the Electoral history of Joe Clark, the sixteenth Prime Minister of Canada.

He led the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in three general elections, winning one (1979) and losing two (1980 and 2000).

Clark defeated Pierre Trudeau in the 1979 election, but did not win a majority in the House of Commons of Canada.

The Clark government fell on a budget vote in December, 1979, triggering the 1980 election.

Clark ranks twentieth out of twenty-three prime ministers for time in office, serving one term of 273 days.

[2] In 1976, he entered the leadership convention called to replace the outgoing leader, Robert Stanfield.

Clark won the leadership against a crowded field, including Brian Mulroney.

In the 1979 election, Clark defeated Prime Minister Trudeau and the Liberals, but did not win a majority in the House of Commons.

The Liberals and the New Democratic Party voted together to defeat the proposed budget in December, 1979, with the Social Credit members abstaining.

The defeat on a budget measure triggered an immediate election, which Trudeau won, returning to power with a majority government.

[3] Clark returned to the position as Leader of the Official Opposition, but also faced criticism from within his own party.

Although Clark won an approval of 66.9%, he determined that he needed a stronger mandate from the party.

When Mulroney led the Progressive Conservatives to a majority government in the general election of 1984, he appointed Clark to his Cabinet, first as Minister of External Affairs (1984-1991), and then as President of the Privy Council (1991-1993), with responsibility for constitutional affairs.

[2] Clark announced his retirement before the 1993 general election, when the Progressive Conservatives were reduced from a majority government to only two seats in the Commons.

In his first election as leader, Clark led the Progressive Conservatives to a minority government, defeating Pierre Trudeau and the Liberals.

Clark's government fell on a budget vote in December, 1979, triggering the general election of 1980.

Trudeau led the Liberals in the resulting election and was returned to power with a majority.

The 2000 by-election was triggered by the resignation of the incumbent Member of Parliament, Scott Brison, on July 24, 2000, to open a seat for Clark to re-enter the Commons.

When Robert Stanfield announced his resignation as party leader in 1976, Clark was one of a crowded field of candidates in the leadership convention.

Clark was defeated on the fourth ballot by Brian Mulroney, who succeeded him as party leader.

Instead of a convention with delegates, each Progressive Conservative constituency association had 100 points in the leadership election.