Joe Clark speaks at McLaughlin today

Former prime minister Joe Clark will be at York’s McLaughlin College today at 5pm to deliver the College’s annual lecture on public policy.

Clark has the distinction of having been this country’s youngest prime minister, at the age of 39, from 1979 to 1980. He will draw on his extensive experience in foreign affairs for his speech titled "Restoring a Broadly Based Canadian Foreign Policy". Clark remains active in foreign affairs in a bid to bring about solutions to some of the world’s continuing problems.

Left: Joe Clark. CBC photo

Currently, Clark is a professor of practice for public-private sector partnerships at the Centre for Developing-Area Studies at McGill University.

Clark led the Progressive Conservative Party from 1979 to 1983 and again from 1998 to 2002. He served as external affairs minister and as constitutional affairs minister while in the Mulroney government from 1984 to 1993.

After the failure of the Meech Lake Accord in 1990, Clark played a key role in federal and provincial diplomacy and was instrumental in negotiations leading to the Charlottetown Accord.

The lecture takes place at 5pm in the Junior Common Room, 014 McLaughlin College. For more information visit the McLaughlin College Web site.