- Joseph Clarke
Infobox Politician (general)
name= Joseph Andrew Clarke
imagesize=300
title= Mayor of Edmonton
term_start= December 9, 1918
term_end= December 13, 1920
predecessor=Harry Marshall Erskine Evans
successor=David Milwyn Duggan
term_start1= November 14, 1934
term_end1= November 10, 1937
predecessor1=Daniel Kennedy Knott
successor1=John Wesley Fry
title2= Alderman onEdmonton City Council
term_start2= February 16, 1912
term_end2= December 9, 1912
term_start3= December 8, 1913
term_end3= December 13, 1915
term_start4= December 8, 1924
term_end4= December 14, 1925
birth_date= September 20, 1869
birth_place= Osnabruck Center,Ontario
death_date= July 26, 1941 (aged 71)
death_place=Edmonton ,Alberta
party= Labour, Independent, Civic Youth Association
otherparty= Socialist Party of Alberta, Conservative Party of Canada,Liberal Party of Canada , People's Candidate
spouse= Gwendolyn Asbury
children= Three
profession= Lawyer
alma_mater=York University Joseph Andrew Clarke (born
September 20 ,1869 ; diedJuly 26 ,1941 ) was a politician and lawyer fromCanada . He served twice as mayor ofEdmonton, Alberta , was a candidate for election to theCanadian House of Commons and theLegislative Assembly of Alberta , and was a member of the Yukon Territorial Council (precursor to theYukon Legislative Assembly ).Early life
Clarke was born in Osnabruck Center,
Ontario . He was educated in Prescott andBrockville, Ontario , and joined theNorth West Mounted Police in 1892 inRegina, Saskatchewan . He returned to Ontario shortly thereafter, only to be charged by the RNWMP withdesertion . He was fined one hundred dollars, but received no further sanction in part because the magistrate was his uncle.After his brief policing career, Clarke studied law at
Osgoode Hall atYork University inToronto . Upon graduating, he moved to theYukon to take part in theKlondike gold rush . While there, he was admitted to the bar and spent two years (1903-1904) as an appointed member of the Yukon Territorial Council.He moved to Edmonton to practice law in 1908. Once there, he married Gwendolen Asbury on
October 9 ,1911 ; the pair would have three children.Edmonton politics
Joseph Clarke ran in a total of twenty-seven Edmonton municipal elections, more than any person before or since (as municipal elections in Edmonton now occur only every three years, this record is unlikely ever to be broken). In all, he ran for mayor seventeen times (winning five such elections) and for alderman ten times (being elected thrice).
Clarke's first attempt at municipal office took place during the February 1912 election, when he ran for the position of alderman on
Edmonton City Council . He was elected to a one year term. Rather than seek re-election in the next election, he ran for mayor, finishing in last place in a three candidate field.He returned to city council after being elected to a two year term as an alderman in the 1913 election. During this council term, he forged a temporary alliance with mayor William McNamara against those who wanted to drive prostitution and gambling out of the city. The alliance disintegrated after the two came to blows in a council meeting. Clarke lost his re-election, bid, finishing eighth of fourteen candidates in the 1915 election. Unsuccessful bids for mayor followed in 1916 and 1917 before he was elected to that office in the 1918.
During his first term as mayor, Clarke was confronted with a city-wide strike in support of the
Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 . Clarke was sympathetic to the strikers, and when the federal government'sRoyal Commission on Industrial Relations (the Mather Commission) stopped in Edmonton, he joined labour leaders in presenting a list of twenty-nine demands, including the right to collective bargaining, the eight hour day, price controls, and workers' rights to run and hold public office. He also resisted the use of strikebreakers (despite strong advocacy from the Edmonton Board of Trade and alderman Charles Grant), for which he was accused by theEdmonton Journal andEdmonton Bulletin of succumbing to the "Soviet power" of the Edmonton Trade & Labour Council (ET&LC). Instead, he and alderman J. A. Kinney negotiated with the ET&LC's strike committee (which included future city mayorsElmer Ernest Roper andDaniel Kennedy Knott and future aldermanAlfred Farmilo ) to allow the continued provision of certain services.Clarke was re-elected mayor in the 1919 election, but a concerted effort by the Board of Trade and the two local papers saw him defeated byDavid Duggan in the 1920 election. His attempt to regain his old job in the 1922 election failed, as he finished second of six candidates. He was elected again as an alderman in the 1924 election for a two year term, but resigned one year in in order to run for mayor in the 1925 election. He finished third of six candidates.There followed a decade in the political wilderness, marked by unsuccessful runs for mayor (in 1926, 1927, 1932, and 1933) and alderman (in 1928, 1929, 1930, and 1931), before he was returned to the office of mayor in the 1934 election. While he had lost the office fourteen years earlier for being too friendly to organized labour, his opponents in 1934 included Knott and labour alderman
Rice Sheppard . He was re-elected in 1935 and 1936 (defeating future mayor and labour advocateHarry Dean Ainlay on this second occasion). It was during this term that he laid the groundwork for a football stadium on the site of a closed federal prison. This stadium would eventually be namedClarke Stadium in his honour.Joseph Clarke was defeated in the 1937 election by
John Wesley Fry . He ran in every municipal election until the end of his life (for mayor in 1938 and for alderman in 1939 and 1940) but would never again hold political office.Provincial politics
Joseph Clarke was a perennial candidate for the
Legislative Assembly of Alberta , running provincially five times.He first ran in the 1913 Alberta general election as a parachute candidate in the controversial Clearwater electoral district for
Charles M. O'Brien 's Socialist Party of Alberta. He was defeated by LiberalHenry William McKenney , the incumbent M.L.A. for Pembina.Clarke next ran in the 1917 election as an independent in Edmonton East. He finished third of four candidates - the only candidate he defeated was Andera Keil, of Clarke's old Socialist Party.
He ran again in the 1926 Alberta general election as an independent Liberal in Edmonton district. He finished fourth of eighteen candidates on the first count, which would have been sufficient to win one of the riding's five seats under a
plurality voting system ; however, the riding used asingle transferable vote system that allowed other candidates to pass him on subsequent counts. One of the candidates to do so was David Duggan, the same man who had defeated Clarke in his mayoral re-election bid in 1920.Clarke's fourth attempt at provincial office took place during the 1930 election, when he sought election in Edmonton as an independent. He finished sixteenth of seventeen candidates.
Clarke's final provincial election was a 1937 by-election in Edmonton caused by the death of incumbent Liberal
G.H. Van Allen . Clarke ran as a "People's Candidate" and was backed by the newAlberta Social Credit Party government, which did not field a candidate. He finished second, as Liberal leaderEdward Leslie Gray retained the seat for his party, which was backed by the Conservatives under the so-called "Unity Movement". Clarke was mayor of Edmonton at the time of this by-election.Federal politics
Clarke was a perennial candidate in Federal elections, running unsuccessfully four times. He made his first bid for a seat in the Canadian House of Commons, running as a Conservative candidate in the a 1902 by-election in the Yukon electoral district. He was defeated by
James Hamilton Ross . He made his second bid while still living in the Yukon in the 1908 federal election and was once again defeated, this time by Frederick Congdon.Clarke did not make another run for federal office until 13 years later, when he ran in
Edmonton East for theLiberal Party of Canada in the 1921 federal election (he was a personal friend of then-Liberal leader and soon to be Prime MinisterWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King ). He finished second to Progressive candidateDonald Ferdinand Kellner . His final run for federal office was in Peace River again running for theLiberal Party of Canada in the 1926 Canadian federal election. He was defeated byDonald MacBeth Kennedy finishing third in a field of three candidates.Personal life, death, and legacy
Clarke was an accomplished athlete, and excelled at
lacrosse , football, andtrack and field . He was also known for his penchant for violence, and was nicknamed "Fightin' Joe" as a result. He was implicated in a number of prostitution and gambling rings as well.Joseph Andrew Clarke died in his sleep
July 26 ,1941 , less than a year after contesting his last election.Clarke Stadium in Edmonton was named in his honour before his death. His wife, Gwendolen, would herself become a municipal politician in Edmonton after his death.References
* [http://www.epl.ca/Elections/results/EPLBiographiesLetter.cfm?id=C Edmonton Public Library Biography of Joseph Clarke]
* [http://www.edmonton.ca/CityGov/ElectionHistory/Members%20of%20Council%20Biographies.doc City of Edmonton biography of Joseph Clarke]
* [http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5202/Edm1919.htm Account of the 1919 Edmonton strike from the Labour News]
* [http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5202/CITYHALL1.htm History of labour's involvement in Edmonton politics from the Edmonton Bullet]
* [http://www.epl.ca/edmontonacitycalledhome/EPLEdmontonCityCalledStoryChapter.cfm?id=120 Chapter 5 of the Edmonton Public Library's history of Edmonton]
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