The Right Honourable Joe Clark will be awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, at the 2 p.m. ceremony on Wednesday, June 9, “in recognition of his support for parliamentary democracy, his dedication as a professor and his work on issues of global importance.”
The former prime minister has been working for decades to improve democracy at home and abroad. He was first elected to the House of Commons as a Progressive Conservative in 1972 and served until 1993. He returned to federal politics in 2000 before retiring in 2004 Mr. Clark distinguished himself as a politician who cared deeply about Canada and its reputation on the world stage.
In 2004, the Alberta native was a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and he was the Distinguished Statesman in Residence and a Senior Fellow in the School of International Services at American University in Washington, D C.
Mr. Clark has chaired many conferences and led international delegations including the Open Skies Conference, the first joint ministerial meeting of members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Warsaw Pact 1990. He became the first recipient of the Vimy Award presented by the Conference of Defense Associations in 1991. Mr Clark was named a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1995.