Robert Curtis "Bob" Clark (July 2, 1937 – July 10, 2020) was a teacher, civil servant and politician. He served in the
Legislative Assembly of Alberta
The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. The Legislative Assembly currently has 87 members, elected first past the post from sin ...
from 1960 to 1981 including time as a
Cabinet Minister in
Premier Ernest Manning
Ernest Charles Manning, (September 20, 1908 – February 19, 1996), a Canadian politician, was the eighth Premier of Alberta between 1943 and 1968 for the Social Credit Party of Alberta. He served longer than any other premier in Alberta's histor ...
's government, and later as Leader of the
Alberta Social Credit Party
Alberta Social Credit was a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was founded on social credit monetary policy put forward by Clifford Hugh Douglas and on conservative Christian social values. The Canadian social credit movement w ...
and Leader of the Official Opposition. Following his political career, he served as the Alberta Ethics Commissioner from 1992 to 2003.
Early life
Robert Curtis Clark was born on July 2, 1937 in
Acme
Acme is Ancient Greek (ακμή; English transliteration: ''akmē'') for "the peak", "zenith" or "prime". It may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Acme'' (album), an album by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
* Acme and Septimius, a fictional ...
,
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. He became a school teacher at the age of nineteen in 1956 in
Mountain View County
Mountain View County is a municipal district in Division No. 6 in central Alberta, Canada. Located between the cities of Calgary and Red Deer within the Calgary-Edmonton corridor, its municipal office is located north of the Town of Didsbury. ...
.
Political career
Early career
Clark was first elected to the Alberta Legislature in a by-election held in the central Alberta riding of
Didsbury on November 30, 1960. The by-election was made necessary by the death of the previous member,
James Owens. Clark won with twice as many votes as
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
candidate J.A. Lore.
He thus became the youngest Alberta MLA at the age of twenty-three years.
Ahead of the
1963 Alberta general election, Clark's riding was largely merged with nearby
Olds Olds may refer to:
People
* The olds, a jocular and irreverent online nickname for old age, older adults
* Bert Olds (1891–1953), Australian rules footballer
* Carl D. Olds (1912–1979), New Zealand-born American mathematician
* Chauncey N. Old ...
to form
Olds-Didsbury
Olds-Didsbury was a provincial electoral district in central Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first-past-the-post method of voting from 1963 to 1997.
It is noteworthy as the l ...
. The merged riding was mostly Clark's territory, and he won the new district in a landslide over two other candidates.
Cabinet Minister
In 1966 Clark was appointed Minister of Youth by Premier
Ernest Manning
Ernest Charles Manning, (September 20, 1908 – February 19, 1996), a Canadian politician, was the eighth Premier of Alberta between 1943 and 1968 for the Social Credit Party of Alberta. He served longer than any other premier in Alberta's histor ...
.
In the
1967 general election Clark finished well ahead of the other three candidates.
In 1968 Clark was appointed Minister of Education by Premier
Harry Strom
Harry Edwin Strom (July 7, 1914 – October 2, 1984) was the ninth premier of Alberta, from 1968 to 1971. His two-and-a-half years as Premier were the last of the thirty-six-year Social Credit dynasty, as his defeat by Peter Lougheed saw its r ...
.
Clark easily retained his seat in the
1971 general election even as the Social Credit government was defeated.
Opposition leader
Clark was chosen Official Opposition leader by the Social Credit caucus in September 1973 after
James Henderson left the caucus to sit as an independent.
He had earlier run for the leadership of the party and had the support of half the party's MLAs, but was defeated by
Werner Schmidt
Werner Schmidt (born January 18, 1932) is a Canadian former politician, a teacher, and school principal.
Political career
Schmidt was vice-president of Lethbridge Community College when he was chosen to succeed Harry Strom as leader of the Alb ...
, who did not have a seat in the legislature.
Schmidt led the party to a very poor showing in the
1975 general election. The Socreds lost 23% of its popular vote and fell from 25 to four seats in the Legislature, barely holding onto official status. Clark easily defeated two other candidates with a large majority in his home district.
Schmidt resigned shortly after the election, and Clark took the leadership unopposed. In six years as opposition leader, he made little headway on the Tories under
Peter Lougheed
Edgar Peter Lougheed ( ; July 26, 1928 – September 13, 2012) was a Canadian lawyer and Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta, Progressive Conservative politician who served as the tenth premier of Alberta from 1971 to 1985, presiding ...
, who had rapidly built up a machine that dominated Alberta politics as Social Credit had done in its heyday.
Under Clark, Social Credit earned a larger share of the popular vote in the
1979 general election, but failed to win more seats. In his home district he won with the biggest plurality of his career as he remained personally popular.
Less than a year after the election Clark resigned as Social Credit leader, and resigned his seat on November 30, 1981. The separatist
Western Canada Concept
The Western Canada Concept was a Western Canada, Western Canadian federal political party founded in 1980 to promote the separation of the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, and the Yukon and Northwest Territories ...
won his former riding by a resounding margin in the subsequent by-election. Olds-Didsbury was located in an area that had long been Socred heartland; the Olds half had been in Socred hands for all but one month since the party's 1935 breakthrough (when incumbent
Herbert Ash left the party to run as an independent), while the Didsbury half been in Socred hands for all but four of the previous 46 years. This marked the beginning of the end of Social Credit as a force in Alberta politics.
In
a snap election held a year later, Social Credit lost its remaining seats in the legislature, never to return.
After politics
After leaving political office, Clark became a consultant for
Hill and Knowlton and Public Affairs International. He served in both those roles from 1981 to 1992. In 1986 he became a member of the board of directors and later chairman of the board for the Special Waste Management Corporation.
On June 8, 1988, Clark, who had not gone to university, was awarded an
honorary doctorate of law by the
University of Calgary
The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being ins ...
.
Clark would also serve a number of roles in the hockey community in Alberta, Clarke was hired as General Manager for the
Olds Grizzlys
The Olds Grizzlys are a junior A ice hockey team in the Alberta Junior Hockey League. They play in Olds, Alberta, Canada with home games at the Olds & District Sports Complex.
History
The Olds Grizzlys joined the Alberta Junior Hockey League ...
of the
Alberta Junior Hockey League
The Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) is an Alberta-based Junior A ice hockey league that belongs to the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL). It was formed as a five-team league in 1964. There are currently 16 teams in the league. The re ...
(AJHL) in 1987, and oversaw the team's three consecutive AJHL championships between 1992 and 1994, which included the 1994
Centennial Cup
The Centennial Cup is an annual ice hockey tournament organized by Hockey Canada and the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL), which determines the national champion of junior A ice hockey. It is a ten-team round robin featuring the winners of ...
champion team, awarded for the best
Junior A team in Canada. Clark would serve as president of the team from 1996 to 1999, and later chairman of the AJHL from 1998 to 2007. He would be enshrined as a member of the Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame in 2020 as a Builder.
Clark died in July 2020 at the age of 83.
Public servant
Clark was appointed the first Alberta Ethics Commissioner by the provincial government in 1992.
He served in that post from April 1, 1992 to March 31, 2003.
He also served as Alberta's first Information and Privacy Commissioner from 1995 to 2001.
On March 12, 2002 he was appointed Chairman of the Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission which published the report to serve as the basis for the
2004 Alberta Electoral Boundary Re-distribution.
In 2003 Clark was given the Alberta Lieutenant Governor's Award for his dedication to public service.
After resigning from his post as Alberta Ethics Commissioner he worked as the Ethics Advisor for the
Alberta Energy and Utilities Board from 2002 until 2007. Since 2006 he has worked as the Chair of Rural Alberta's Development Fund.
References
External links
Rural Alberta's Development FundLegislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Robert Curtis
1937 births
Alberta Social Credit Party MLAs
2020 deaths
Alberta Social Credit Party leaders
University of Calgary alumni
Members of the Executive Council of Alberta