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For the baseball player, see Glen Clark

For the former lacrosse coach & player, see Glenn Clark

Glen David Clark (born November 22, 1957 in Nanaimo, British Columbia) is a former politician in British Columbia, Canada who served as the 31st Premier of British Columbia from 1996 to 1999.

Clark was first elected to the BC Legislature in the 1986 provincial election.

Clark served as finance minister under New Democratic Party of British Columbia (NDP) Premier Mike Harcourt. When Harcourt resigned amid scandal in 1995, Clark was elected by the NDP to replace him. Clark became BC's 31st Premier.

Clark called an election in 1996 in which his party narrowly won a majority of seats, despite receiving fewer votes across the province than the second-place BC Liberal Party.

During his premiership, Clark worked hard to increase the accessibility of education by lowering tuition fees, and he successfully completed the widening of the Island Highway linking many communities on Vancouver Island and the choice for the Millennium Line.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Scandals

[edit] Fast Ferry Scandal

The Clark government is most remembered for the "fast ferry fiasco"^{[citation needed]}. In an effort to revitalize a shipbuilding industry, Clark undertook the B.C. fast ferries initiative, which was designed to upgrade the existing BC Ferries fleet as well as jump start the shipbuilding industry in Vancouver. Although the ferries were eventually produced, the project had massive cost overruns and long delays. Clark's refusal to cancel the program became a focus of public criticism. The ferries were later sold by the incoming Liberal government, for a fraction of their original price, to the American owned Washington Marine Group.

[edit] Fudge-It Budget

Another scandal that beset the NDP government occurred in the immediate aftermath of the 1996 election when it was revealed that provincial budget figures had been manipulated to show a surplus when in fact a deficit had been projected (the "Fudge-It Budget" scandal).^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Casinogate

Clark resigned suddenly on the night of August 25, 1999 following allegations that he had accepted favours (in the form of free renovations worth $10,000) from Dimitrios Pilarinos in return for approving a casino application. He was later formally charged with committing a criminal offense. The subsequent investigation spawned a media circus, infamously highlighted with live prime-time coverage of an R.C.M.P. raid on the Clark household. It was never explained why the RCMP chose to invite^{[citation needed]} a particular network known for its Liberal Party ties^{[citation needed]} to be present. As the scandal widened, it came out that a competing casino license in Burnaby was being put forward by retired RCMP, including Peter Montague, a noted Liberal supporter^{[citation needed]} who had also been the RCMP media spokesman during the Gustafsen Lake Stand-off in which he infamously stated "we specialize in smear campaigns"^{[citation needed]}.

Conflict of Interest Commissioner H.A.D. Oliver concluded^[1] that Clark had violated Conflict of Interest laws in British Columbia. However, Clark was acquitted of all criminal charges on August 29, 2002. Justice Elizabeth Bennett of the Supreme Court of British Columbia ruled that "there is nothing in his conduct that crosses the line from an act of folly to behaviour calling for criminal sanctions."

[edit] After political life

Clark was succeeded as Premier of B.C. by Deputy Premier Dan Miller, briefly, until a leadership convention selected Ujjal Dosanjh.

After Clark left office, the BC Liberal Party led by Gordon Campbell won a landslide election in 2001.

He is currently employed as Executive Vice President of the Jim Pattison Group and president of The News Group North America.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Link to Glen Clark Conflict of Interest ruling
• BC Supreme Court ruling on the Clark-Pilarinos case

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