The current U.S. administration may be causing trouble for Canada and the rest of the world, but it also offers opportunities for our country, Canada’s 16th prime minister told a Salt Spring Forum crowd on Wednesday, April 23.
Fulford Hall was again packed for a Forum event, as it and other venues have been on a few occasions this season. This time the draw was the Right Honourable Joe Clark, a Progressive Conservative prime minister from 1979 to 1980.
Forum chair Michael Byers, who introduced Clark and moderated the evening, said he has wanted to have Clark as a guest for the past 15 years, or since the group’s inception.
“I was barely a teenager living in Lethbridge, Alta., when a 39-year-old from High River was elected Prime Minister of Canada. So to say that my entire life of being aware of politics has centred around this man is not an overstatement, and I’ve discovered over the years of my friendship with Joe that we actually line up pretty close in terms of our politics, because Joe was an oxymoron. He was a ‘progressive’ conservative.”
Clark, who is almost 86 and still active in various organizations and university teaching, has been speaking publicly since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, encouraging Canadians to become aware of the important role their country can play at this turbulent time in history.
“As Canadians in the world I think we are sometimes too complacent about the influence that we might be able to have,” he said, when all of us — not just those in elected office — can have a positive impact through the standards we hold and example we set.
Byers asked Clark to talk about how the current U.S. administration “seems to be creating some major opportunities for Canada.”
Clark elicited laughter from the crowd when he said, “I don’t think it’s deliberate.”
“I think that one of the consequences of what Mr. Trump is doing is that it has created an awareness among our own citizens of how valuable a country we are, and indeed how potentially threatened we are as a country. And I think that, in turn, creates a very real opportunity for us to pay more attention to the things that we can do in the world,” whether that is because the scope has now enlarged or because the Americans are alienating themselves from other nations.
“I sometimes get the feeling that we are not acting as a country as much as we should be acting as a country,” he said, stressing that he is not attributing that to any particular regime or factor. “I think it simply is due to having a more relaxed view than we should have about our own capacity.”
He revisited the message at different points in the evening when responding to questions.
“I don’t want us to be aggressive in the world,” he said. “I want us to be proud in the world. I want us to be aware of our capacities and our ability to do things that we once would leave to others, but which others are now not doing.”
Clark said he once described Canada as “a community of communities” — and was widely criticized for that characterization — but said, “I think it is true. I think that there is a sense of community among Canadians of difference that is stronger here than it is in many other countries. But like so much in Canada, we are not doing enough about it.”
Clark said he was pleased to see recent cooperation between the provinces’ premiers and federal government in responding to the U.S. tariff threat, noting that may not always have been possible.
Clark was prime minister from June of 1979 to March of 1980. His minority government lost the confidence of the House in a narrow vote due to its budget that included a plan for an 18 cents per gallon (four cents per litres) tax on gasoline to reduce the budget deficit. He was Leader of the Opposition from 1976 to 1979 and 1980 to 1983 and the country’s Secretary of State for External Affairs from 1984 to 1991, and the Minister Responsible for Constitutional Affairs from 1991 to 1993, in the Brian Mulroney government.
While in charge of external affairs, Clark spent time on the South Africa file in the period leading up to the end of apartheid in that country. He shared his opinion Wednesday that Canada should invest more in building relationships with African countries.
“We have a number of interests in common that we need to pursue, and I hope that we might be able, over time, to re-establish a sense of high profile in Canadian-African relations.”
Almost an hour of the evening was devoted to audience questions ranging from concerns about governments’ deficit spending, to Preston Manning raising the spectre of western separatism, to the CBC.
Clark was applauded for expressing support for the institution of the CBC, which he said “is of real value to our country . . . I think it needs to undergo some rigorous self-examination, but that should be to improve it, not to remove it.”
Byers also invited everyone to attend the Salt Spring Forum’s 15th anniversary party at Fulford Hall on Saturday, May 10, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. The free event will feature delicious nibblies, a cash bar, silent auction, prizes, music and “very short speeches,” he said. Registration for catering purposes is requested at saltspringforum.com.