Joe Clark, Canada’s 16th prime minister and the one with the most easily pronounceable name. He was also one of Canada’s shortest-serving leaders, serving less than a year in office, from June 4, 1979 to March 3, 1980, sandwiched in between two of Pierre Trudeau’s tenures. But alas, I’m ahead of the biography.

Joe Clark, or Charles Joseph Clark to his parents, was born in High River, Alberta, on June 5, 1939, making him a good ol’ country boy. He was raised in Alberta and attended the University of Alberta in Edmonton where he was the editor-in-chief of their student publication, The Gateway. I would like to take this opportunity to say that I too was EIC of my student publication, the Capilano Courier. Maybe that means I’ll be in office one day too. Clark worked a variety of publications as a journalist, including the Edmonton Journal and the Canadian Press I Toronto before ultimately going to Dalhousie Law School in Halifax. He then switched coasts and attended the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Gotta give it to the guy, he travelled the country.

Clark, while working for the Progressive-Conservative Party (which is, when you think about it, a full oxymoron) met Maureen McTeer, who he hired to work in a parliamentary office. McTeer had been politically active since a young age and made a stink when she didn’t opt to change her name when they were married in 1973. She was supportive of his political ambitions, which was a good thing, as he entered politics at the ripe age of 28. He was first elected as the MP for Rocky Mountain in 1972. Just four years later, at the age of 36, he was elected as leader of the Progressive-Conservative party. He remains the youngest person ever to be elected as party leader in Canadian political history.

Joe Clark with his wife Maureen McTeer, celebrating his party leader win in 1976.

Because he was so young at the time of election, many people, especially out east in Toronto in Quebec, didn’t know him. When he first was elected, the Toronto Star ran a headline, “Joe Who?” which was his unfortunate nickname for many years after. And when the Canadian public wanted a change from the Trudeau agenda in 1979, the elected Joe Who as their alternative. He became prime minister the day before his 40th birthday.

Joe Clark wasn’t in office long enough to make any drastic changes. He did have a long-serving political career, serving as leader of the opposition to Trudeau’s Liberals and taking multiple roles n Brian Mulroney’s cabinet in the post-Trudeau era. Since his political retirement, he has written multiple books, taught at McGill, worked with various organizations, including the Jimmy Carter Centre, and the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars. And, because of his Alberta roots, he is one of a handful of prime ministers from the Canadian west, something to dig my teeth into in the next one.