Charles Joseph Clark PC CC AOE (born June 5, 1939) is a Canadian businessman, writer, and politician who served as the 16th prime minister of Canada from 1979 to 1980.

Despite his relative inexperience, Clark rose quickly in federal politics, entering the House of Commons in the 1972 election and winning the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party in 1976.

He made a political comeback in 1998 to lead the Progressive Conservatives in their last general election before the party's eventual dissolution, serving his final term in Parliament from 2000 to 2004.

McTeer has developed her own career as a well-known author and lawyer and caused controversy by keeping her maiden name after marriage, a practice less common at the time.

[7] Clark sparred with future political rival Preston Manning in debate forums on campus between the Young PCs and the Youth League of the Alberta Social Credit Party.

Initially, the favourite among Red Tories was Flora MacDonald; however, she did worse than expected, while Clark placed a surprising third in a field of eleven on the first ballot of convention delegates, behind only Claude Wagner and Brian Mulroney.

[9] Clark, who won the Tory leadership at age 36, remains the youngest leader of a major federal party in the history of Canadian politics.

His clumsiness and awkward mannerisms were mocked by some political commentators, such as cartoonist Andy Donato who typically drew Clark with mittens on strings hanging from his suit sleeves.

Trudeau had put off asking the Canadian Governor General to call an election as long as possible, in the hope that his party could recover popular support but it backfired, as there was growing public antipathy towards his perceived arrogance.

During the same tour, while inspecting a military honour guard, Clark turned too soon and nearly bumped into a soldier's bayonet; one of the first major media reports on the incident claimed, with some exaggeration, that he had nearly been beheaded.

Nonetheless, Clark's Progressive Conservatives won 136 seats to end sixteen continuous years of Liberal rule in the election for the 31st Canadian Parliament.

On June 4, 1979, the day before his 40th birthday, Clark was sworn in as Canada's 16th prime minister, steering the first Tory government since the defeat of John Diefenbaker in the 1963 election.

At the time, Opposition leader Trudeau said that he would allow the Progressive Conservatives a chance to govern, though he warned the Prime Minister against dismantling Petro-Canada, which was unpopular in Clark's home province of Alberta.

During the campaign, Clark committed to move Canada's embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and re-affirmed this promise shortly after taking office.

[21] Moreover, it proved a perilous situation as moving the embassy risked a negative economic response, or a violent one from terrorists, and not doing so would make Clark look indecisive.

[citation needed] Clark's refusal to work with the Socreds, combined with the gasoline tax, came back to haunt him when the budget came before the House of Commons in December 1979.

[17] Clark was criticized for his "inability to do math" in failing to predict the outcome, not only because he was in a minority situation, but also because three members of his caucus would be absent for the crucial budget vote.

[citation needed] Difficult budgets and the economic recession resulted in Trudeau's approval ratings declining after the bounce from the 1982 Constitution patriation and showed his party headed for certain defeat by early 1984, prompting him to retire.

(In December 2007, German-Canadian businessman and lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber told the House of Commons Ethics Committee that he and other Germans, including Bavarian politician Franz Josef Strauss, and Austrian-Canadian entrepreneur Walter Wolf, had contributed significant funds to finance Quebec delegates to vote against Clark at Winnipeg, denying him the mandate he sought.

[citation needed] In a rematch of the 1976 convention, Mulroney emerged as the main challenger, gaining the support of the party's right wing, which viewed Clark as too progressive and opposed his continued leadership.

Media coverage emphasized the pro-business and neo-liberal bent of most of the candidates as a "Changing of the Guard" within the PC party from their more classical conservative and moderate elements.

[citation needed] Several candidates agreed to an "ABC" (Anybody But Clark) strategy for the convention and when news of that back-room deal broke out, support was expected to rally around the party's embattled leader.

Clark feared that the 34% of PC members who did not support him would become his most vocal critics in the upcoming election campaign, and that his continued leadership would have led to fractures in the party.

The latter position saw him play a leading role in the drafting of the Charlottetown Accord, which was decisively rejected in a nationwide referendum and further hurt the standing of the PC party in polls.

Clark defeated Hugh Segal, free-trade opponent David Orchard, former Manitoba cabinet minister Brian Pallister, and future Senator Michael Fortier for the leadership of the PC Party.

Jean Chrétien's governing Liberals were running on their successful economic record, and they were poised to regain the support that they lost in 1997, threatening the PC's 1997 gains in Ontario, Quebec, and the Atlantic provinces.

Clark was selected by the media and many parliamentarians for three years in a row to be Canada's most effective opposition leader between 2000 and 2002, pursuing the Liberal government on issues such as Shawinigate and the Groupaction scandal.

Clark endorsed former NDP leader Ed Broadbent and other Liberals and Conservatives as individuals, saying that the most important thing was to have "the strongest possible House of Commons of Canada" since neither large party offered much hope.

[50] On Tuesday, May 27, 2008, Clark's official parliamentary portrait was unveiled during a reception ceremony to be hung in Centre Block alongside Canada's past prime ministers.

He has earned the admiration of all Canadians as one of our country's most respected statesmen.Joe Clark has received honorary degrees from several institutions: Bold indicates parties with members elected to the House of Commons.