The Right Honourable Charles Joseph Clark

Joe Clark was elected eight times to the House of Commons of Canada, and is a former Canadian Prime Minister, Foreign Minister,  Minister of Constitutional Affairs, and National Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.   He also served as Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, and Acting Minister of both National Defence and of Justice. 

He is President of Joe Clark and Associates Ltd, vice-chairman of the Global Leadership Foundation, and a member of the Inter-American Dialogue, and the Friends of the Inter-American Charter.  Mr. Clark serves on the boards of Triton Logging Inc, GlobeScan Inc, Traugott Construction Management,  Pearson College of the Pacific, and other Canadian and international organizations.  He is a professor in the Institute for the Study of International Development at McGill University.

He was the first Canadian Prime Minister to visit Africa while in office, was founding chairman of the Commonwealth Committee of Foreign Ministers on Southern Africa, a co-founder of the underwater forestry company CSRD in Ghana, served on the board of the not-for-profit BDA (Biotechnologie pour le développement durable en Afrique) and has led international Election Observation teams in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, and Lebanon. 

Mr. Clark is a Companion of the Order of Canada, a member of the Alberta Order of Excellence and l’Ordre de la Pleiades, and the first recipient of the Vimy Award.   Born in High River, Alberta, he has been awarded honorary degrees by several Canadian and international universities and colleges, including York University in 2008, and Carleton University in June 2010.  He was a founding member of the Pacific Council for International Policy, has served as Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Cyprus, and is the author of “Canada: A Nation Too Good to Lose”. 

Joe Clark is married to the Canadian author and lawyer Maureen McTeer, who specializes in law and public policy respecting health, science, and reproductive technologies.  Their home is in Ottawa, Ontario.