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The Joe-Whos of Joe Who-ville
My deep, dark, shameful secret is that I was once a card-carrying member of the Progressive Conservative party. I joined the party some time around 1983 when I was 16 years old. My sole reason for joining the party was to participate in the candidate selection meeting for my riding. My high school law teacher, Mr. Manual, was the campaign manager for one of the candidates. Mr. Manual is probably the person responsible for making me interested in government and politics, although I'm sure that he'd be shocked and appalled by my current political leanings.
I guess I first became aware of politics earlier than that. I rooted for Joe Clark in the 1979 election, and was disappointed in the vote of no confidence that caused a re-election in 1980. Nobody expected Clark to win leadership of the Progressive Conservative party; I believe the "Joe Who" nickname originated with that leadership convention, and has followed him for twenty five years.
Joe Clark had his last speech in the House of Commons on Thursday. Twice the leader of the Progressive Conservatives, he spoke as an Independent member because he resigned from the Conservatives last February rather than join the newly-merged Conservative Party of Canada (CPC). The new CPC leader, Stephen Harper, noted in his tribute to Joe:
I wish to begin by admitting that we have not always been on the same side of political issues. I think we have spent most of our careers and political lives as opponents, but in this business, while this may colour one's perspective, it should not blind one to the abilities and accomplishments of others.
Because of the rivalries that we have had from time to time, the right hon. member and myself are sometimes compared, and I am sure will be more frequently in the future. These comparisons to me are, from my perspective, not always flattering.
Harper has a knack for understatement.
I must confess that I still have a soft spot for Joe, even though I now loathe the PCs. (I loathed the Canadian Alliance even more, so I don't expected the new party -- the CPCs -- to be any better). The only good thing that I can say about Brian Mulroney was that he managed to decimate the federal conservative party -- a truth that I doubt he acknowledges.
But I think that Joe was a good guy. Few people seem to know how much he did to fight for the freedom of Nelson Mandela. Mandela became an Honourary Appointee to the Order of Canada and an Honourary Canadian Citizen because of special relationship that Joe had a big hand in.
During debates about Bill C-36, discussion of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress were central to ensuring that a legal definition of terrorism was not too broad. Senator Fraser, in a Subcommittee on C-36 said:
For example, the case of the African National Congress has been raised again and again, both before this group and before the House of Commons committee. I will read what the Minister of Justice said: "We recall that the definition of terrorist activity specifically excludes an act or omission that is committed during an armed conflict."
The Attorney General told the Commons committee that under the 1977 protocols, which are additional to the Geneva Convention of 1949, an armed conflict includes people fighting against colonial domination, alien occupation or racist regimes in the exercise of their right of self-determination.
That is the definition with which we operate. It is the definition that is accepted globally, so Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress are explicitly not covered by these definitions.
(Mind you, I'm sure that Rob "Nelson Mandela is a communist and a terrorist" Anders had a lot to do with that particular debate.)
Joe was also easy to criticize. Paul Wells once wrote:
Consider, though, [Senator Lowell] Murray and Clark. There can be no more rousing advertisement for any course of action than the news that they are against it. [...]
Clark has more heart and more integrity than any 10 other politicians. But holy cow, look at his record. He spent 1979 demonstrating to an astonished nation that it is possible to like somebody less than Pierre Elliot Trudeau. He ran a federal campaign in 2000 whose television ads ("Liberal Lies") did not show the party's leader or discuss the leader's ideas. He essentially forgot to explain why Canadians should vote Tory. [...] The more time he spent in politics, the less we knew about how he would govern. He actually sucked information out of the national conversation.
Mind you, I think that Clark had one of the most memorable moments in the 2000 election: when Stockwell Day brought out a sign ("NO TWO-TIER HEALTH CARE") during the televised leaders debate, Joe remarked, "Mr. Day is a past master of reducing complex arguments to bill boards... I'm not sure if he's running for Prime Minister or game show host."
Joe's official biography from the former PC party's pages, sadly include this statement: "Joe Clark led the opposition against the Liberal policies that would end up saddling Canada with financial and constitutional burdens that continue to hamper the country to this day."
Constitutional burdens? Yuck.
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