Greg Clark | |
---|---|
Leader of the Alberta Party | |
In office September 21, 2013 – February 27, 2018 | |
Preceded by | Glenn Taylor |
Succeeded by | Stephen Mandel |
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for Calgary-Elbow | |
In office May 5, 2015 – April 16, 2019 | |
Preceded by | Gordon Dirks |
Succeeded by | Doug Schweitzer |
Personal details | |
Born | Gregory Jamieson Clark March 7, 1971 Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
Political party | Alberta Party |
Occupation | Entrepreneur |
Gregory Jamieson Clark [1] (born March 7, 1971) is a Canadian politician from Alberta. He is the former leader of the Alberta Party, [2] and in the 2015 Alberta general election was elected the party's sole Member of the Legislative Assembly, representing Calgary-Elbow. Clark resigned as leader on November 18, 2017, and served as interim leader until the leadership election when Stephen Mandel was elected the new leader of the party. [3]
Clark was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta. [4] He graduated in 1993 from the University of Victoria with a degree in Political Science, minoring in Sociology and holds an MBA from Royal Roads University, graduating in 2005. He returned to Alberta to work for Laurence Decore, who was then leader of the Official Opposition Alberta Liberals.
Deciding to leave politics for a time, Clark earned an MBA and in 2006 co-founded an Information Technology consulting firm C3 Associates. The firm earned a distinction as one of Alberta Venture's 50 fast growth companies in 2011 and 2012. C3 Associates was also named one of Canada's top 250 information technology companies by the Branham Group in 2012 and 2013. In 2015, Mr. Clark was named one Alberta's 50 Most Influential by Alberta Venture Magazine. He has engaged in volunteer work, most notably as Vice Chair of Distress Centre Calgary, and he co-founded the Calgary River Communities Action Group in response to the 2013 Alberta floods.
In 2013, Clark sold his share of C3 to his partners to enter politics full-time. [5]
Clark was the Alberta Party's election candidate in Calgary-Elbow for the 2012 Alberta general election, placing 5th. Following the resignation of Glenn Taylor, the Alberta Party remained without a leader for some months. On May 29, 2013, the party announced that it would hold a leadership vote to coincide with its Annual General Meeting on September 21, 2013 in Edmonton. [6] Clark won the election, receiving 87% of the 337 votes cast. [7]
He was elected as the Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for Calgary-Elbow on May 5, 2015. He currently serves on the Standing Committee for Resource Stewardship and is a member of the Select Special Ethics and Accountability Committee. [8]
Despite becoming the first Alberta Party candidate to win a seat in the Alberta legislature and growing the caucus to two by attracting an NDP MLA to cross the floor, Clark resigned as leader in November 2017 after being reportedly pressured by the party's board of directors to do so in order to renew the party through a leadership election. His resignation occurred months after the merger of the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties in to the United Conservative Party which, in turn, resulted in large numbers of disaffected former Progressive Conservatives to join the Alberta Party and, allegedly, try to remould it in their image. [9] Though he initially considered standing in the new leadership election, Clark announced on December 14, 2017, that he would not be a candidate for the leadership though he intends to remain an Alberta Party MLA and run for re-election to the legislature in the 2019 provincial election. [10] [11]
2012 Alberta general election : Calgary-Elbow | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
Progressive Conservative | Alison Redford | 11,198 | 58.09 | +16.01 | ||||
Wildrose | James Cole | 5,509 | 28.58 | +21.97 | ||||
Liberal | Beena Ashar | 1,067 | 5.53 | −33.67 | ||||
New Democratic | Craig Coolahan | 761 | 3.95 | +1.96 | ||||
Alberta Party | Greg Clark | 518 | 2.69 | – | ||||
Evergreen | William Hamilton | 225 | 1.17 | −2.44 | ||||
Total valid votes | 19,278 | 100.00 | – | |||||
Total rejected ballots | 257 | – | – | |||||
Turnout | 19,535 | 58.44 | +12.60 | |||||
Eligible voters | 33,430 | – | – |
: Calgary-Elbow | Alberta provincial by-election, October 27, 2014||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
Progressive Conservative | Gordon Dirks | 4,207 | 33.21% | -24.88 | ||||
Alberta Party | Greg Clark | 3,412 | 26.94% | +24.25 | ||||
Wildrose | John Fletcher | 3,056 | 24.13% | -4.45 | ||||
Liberal | Susan Wright | 1,519 | 11.99% | +6.46 | ||||
New Democratic | Stephanie McLean | 472 | 3.73% | -0.22 | ||||
Total valid votes | ––,––– | 100.00 | – | |||||
Total rejected ballots | – | – | – | |||||
Turnout | ––,––– | ––.–– | – | |||||
Eligible voters | ––,––– | – | – |
2015 Alberta general election : Calgary-Elbow | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |||||
Alberta Party | Greg Clark | 8,707 | 42.20 | |||||
Progressive Conservative | Gordon Dirks | 6,254 | 30.31 | |||||
New Democratic | Catherine Welburn | 3,256 | 15.78 | |||||
Wildrose | Megan Brown | 1,786 | 8.66 | |||||
Liberal | John Roggeveen | 565 | 2.74 | |||||
Social Credit | Larry Heather | 67 | 0.33 | |||||
Total valid votes | 20,635 | |||||||
Rejected, spoiled and declined | 101 | |||||||
Turnout | 20,736 | 59.8 | ||||||
Eligible voters | 34,681 | |||||||
Source: Elections Alberta [12] |
2019 Alberta general election : Calgary-Elbow | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
United Conservative | Doug Schweitzer | 10,951 | 44.3 | +5.33 | ||||
Alberta Party | Greg Clark | 7,542 | 30.5 | -11.7 | ||||
New Democratic | Janet Eremenko | 5,796 | 23.5 | +7.72 | ||||
Liberal | Robin Macintosh | 275 | 1.1 | -1.64 | ||||
Green | Quinn Rupert | 132 | 0.5 | |||||
Total valid votes | 24,696 | |||||||
Rejected, spoiled and declined | 413 | |||||||
Eligible voters | 37,337 | |||||||
Turnout | 67.1% |
The Alberta Liberal Party is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1905, it is the oldest active political party in Alberta and was the dominant political party until the 1921 election, with the first three provincial Premiers being Liberals. Since 1921, it has formed the official opposition in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta several times, most recently from 1993 until 2012. Fourteen Liberals have served as Leader of the Opposition of Alberta.
The Alberta Party, formally the Alberta Party Political Association, is a political party in the province of Alberta, Canada. The party describes itself as a centrist and pragmatic party that is not dogmatically ideological in its approach to politics.
The 26th Alberta Legislative Assembly was in session from March 1, 2005, to February 4, 2008, with the membership of the assembly determined by the results of the 2004 Alberta general election held on November 22, 2004. The Legislature officially resumed on March 1, 2005, and continued until the fourth session was prorogued and dissolved on February 4, 2008, prior to the 2008 Alberta general election on March 3, 2008.
Paul Hinman is a provincial politician and small business entrepreneur from Alberta, Canada. He was formerly the leader of the Wildrose Alliance. He served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 2004 to 2008 representing the electoral district of Cardston-Taber-Warner. On September 14, 2009, Hinman returned to the Legislative Assembly by winning a by-election in Calgary-Glenmore, but lost his bid for re-election on April 23, 2012. He currently serves as the interim leader of the Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta.
Calgary-Elbow is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada. Its current MLA is Doug Schweitzer, who won the seat in the 2019 provincial election.
Calgary-Currie is a provincial electoral district in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It was created in 1971 and is mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting.
The Wildrose Party was a conservative provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. The party was formed by the merger in early 2008 of the Alberta Alliance Party and the unregistered Wildrose Party of Alberta. The wild rose is Alberta's provincial flower.
Alison Merrilla Redford, is a Canadian lawyer and former politician. She was the 14th Premier of Alberta, having served in this capacity from October 7, 2011, to March 23, 2014. Redford was born in Kitimat, British Columbia and grew up all over Canada and overseas before settling in Calgary as a teenager.
Manmeet Singh Bhullar was a Canadian politician and Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta who represented the constituency of Calgary-Greenway as a Progressive Conservative. He served as a cabinet minister from 2011 until the defeat of the Progressive Conservative government in 2015. He was widely seen as a rising star in the Progressive Conservative caucus. Bhullar was killed when he was struck by a tractor trailer on a road when he went to help a stranded motorist on November 23, 2015.
Rajnish K. "Raj" Sherman is an Alberta politician and former Liberal Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for Edmonton-Meadowlark; which he formerly represented as a Progressive Conservative. Sherman was elected leader of the Liberal Party on September 10, 2011, and led the party through the 2012 provincial election. He announced his immediate resignation on January 26, 2015, and that he will not be running for a third term as MLA in the next provincial election.
The 2012 Alberta general election, took place April 23, 2012, to elect members of the 28th Legislative Assembly of Alberta. A Senate nominee election was called for the same day.
Richard William "Ric" McIver is a Canadian politician and businessman from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, who has served on Calgary City Council (2001–10) and has been an MLA in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta since 2012. He served in several cabinet positions under Premiers Alison Redford, Dave Hancock, Jim Prentice and Jason Kenney. Following the party's defeat in the 2015 provincial election McIver was chosen interim leader of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta.
The 2015 Alberta general election, took place on May 5, 2015, following a request of Premier Jim Prentice to the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Donald Ethell to dissolve the Legislative Assembly on April 7, 2015. This election elected members to the 29th Alberta Legislature. It was only the fourth time in provincial history that saw a change of government, and was the last provincial election for both the Alberta Progressive Conservative and Wildrose Parties, which would merge in 2017 to form the United Conservative Party.
Derek Alexander Gerhard Fildebrandt is a former member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Currently he is the publisher of the Western Standard.
An Alberta Liberal Party leadership election was held at the Alberta Liberal Party's 2017 Annual General Meeting in order choose a permanent successor to Raj Sherman who resigned on January 26, 2015. Sherman, who was under investigation over alleged illegal campaign donations, indicated in a statement to the media that he was resigning as leader immediately for personal reasons and did not run for re-election as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta at the provincial election held on May 5, 2015. The leadership election was originally scheduled for April 23, 2016 but has been delayed for a year to give prospective candidates more time to organize. David Khan was elected.
The 2017 Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta leadership election was held on March 18, 2017 in Calgary. It chose Jason Kenney as the successor to former Alberta Premier and Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta leader Jim Prentice. He resigned after the party was defeated in the May 5, 2015 general election. The party had governed the province for 44 consecutive years. Prentice had been elected leader eight months prior to his defeat.
The 2019 Alberta general election was held on April 16, 2019, to elect 87 members to the 30th Alberta Legislature. In its first general election contest, the Jason Kenney-led United Conservative Party (UCP) won 54.88% of the popular vote and 63 seats, reducing Premier Rachel Notley's governing Alberta New Democratic Party (NDP) to Official Opposition with 24 seats. The United Conservative Party was formed in 2017 from a merger of the Progressive Conservative Party and the Wildrose Party after the NDP's victory in the 2015 election ended nearly 44 years of Progressive Conservative rule.
By-elections to the 28th Alberta Legislature have been held to fill vacant seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta between the 2012 election and the 2015 election. Four by-elections were held to fill vacancies in the 28th Alberta Legislature, all in October 2014.
The United Conservative Party is a conservative political party in the province of Alberta, Canada. It was established in July 2017 as a merger between the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta and the Wildrose Party. When established, the UCP immediately formed the Official Opposition in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The UCP won a majority mandate in the 2019 Alberta general election to form the government of Alberta. UCP leader Jason Kenney became premier on April 30, 2019 when he and his first cabinet were appointed and sworn in by the lieutenant governor of Alberta, Lois Mitchell.
The 2018 Alberta Party leadership election occurred on February 27, 2018. It was triggered when outgoing Alberta Party leader Greg Clark announced on November 18, 2017, that he will be resigning as soon as his successor is chosen. According to published reports, Clark was pushed out by the party's board of directors as a result of a surge of former Progressive Conservatives joining the party following the PC party's merger into the United Conservative Party. While Clark initially stated that he was considering standing again for the leadership, he announced on December 14, 2017 that he will not be a candidate. The election is set to be held on February 27, 2018 after originally being scheduled to be on February 7.