Christy Clark

Christina Joan Clark (born October 29, 1965) is a former Canadian politician who was the 35th premier of British Columbia (BC), from 2011 to 2017.

Clark was born on October 29, 1965, in Burnaby, British Columbia, the daughter of Mavis Audrey (née Bain) and Jim Clark.

Her father was a teacher and a three-time candidate for the legislative assembly, and her mother, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland, was a marriage and family therapist in Vancouver.

Clark was the second woman in Canadian history to give birth to a child while serving as a cabinet minister, after Pauline Marois, then a Quebec provincial minister, in 1985.

Clark was the second woman to be premier of BC, after Rita Johnston in 1991, and the first female premier in Canada to lead her party to a plurality of seats in two consecutive general elections.

A member of the British Columbia Liberal Party, Clark was a member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from 1996 to 2005 and was deputy premier from 2001 to 2005 during the first term of Gordon Campbell's government.

Clark was first elected to the legislative assembly in the 1996 election, representing the riding of Port Moody-Burnaby Mountain.

During the next five years, she served as the Official Opposition critic for the environment, children and families and for the public service.

In 2001, Clark gave birth to her only child, Hamish Marissen-Clark, with then husband Mark Marissen.

She also served as the campaign co-chair for the BC Liberals during the 2001 election, in which the party won 77 of 79 seats in the legislative assembly.

Following the BC Liberal Party's election victory in 2001, Premier Gordon Campbell appointed Clark Minister of Education and Deputy Premier.

She brought in a number of changes that were claimed to increase accountability, strengthen parental power in the decision-making process, and provide parents greater choice and flexibility in the school system.

These changes were unpopular amongst teachers, school board members, opposition politicians, and union officials who argued that the decision not to fund the pay increases agreed to by the government resulted in funding gaps.

The changes made were challenged by the BC Teacher's Federation, and were later found to be unconstitutional.

As Education Minister, Clark sought to increase the independence of the BC College of Teachers against heavy opposition from the British Columbia Teachers' Federation.

Clark was also the co-chair of the 2001 Liberal campaign, which included a platform that specifically promised not to sell BC Rail.

In 2002, the BC Liberals and Education Minister Christy Clark introduced Bills 27 & 28 forcing teachers back to work and banning collective bargaining.

In 2004, Clark was appointed Minister of Children and Family Development after Minister Gordon Hogg was forced to resign.

On September 17, 2004, Clark quit provincial politics and did not seek re-election in the 2005 provincial election.

She declared she wanted to spend more time with her three-year-old son.

She left politics in 2005, and became the host of an afternoon radio talk show.

On August 31, 2005, Clark announced that she would seek the nomination of the Non-Partisan Association (NPA) to run for mayor in the Vancouver Civic Elections against local councillor Sam Sullivan.

On September 24, 2005, she lost the NPA's mayoral nomination to Sullivan by 69 votes out of 2,100 cast.

In 2009, Michael Bolton, defence attorney in the Basi-Virk trial, alleged that Clark had participated in the scandal by providing government information to lobbyist Erik Bornmann.

These allegations were never proven or tested in court.

Dave Basi and Bob Virk, Liberal Party insiders were charged for accepting benefits from one of the bidders.

Clark has rebuffed talk of her links to the scandal as "smear tactics".

At the time of the raids and associated warrants, her then-husband Mark Marissen was visited at home by the RCMP.

Her husband was also not under investigation, and was told that he might have been the "innocent recipient" of documents then in his possession.

After Campbell's resignation, Clark won the 2011 leadership election, becoming premier.

She re-entered the legislature after winning a by-election on May 11 in Vancouver-Point Grey, the seat left vacant by Campbell.

In 2011, the BC Supreme Court found Minister Clark's decision to do so unconstitutional.

Clark was deputy premier at the time of the privatization of BC Rail and resulting scandal.

The Liberals were re-elected in the 2013 provincial election in an upset victory.

On June 8, 2016, Clark recounted that, as a 13-year-old girl on her way to work at her first job, she was forcibly grabbed and pulled into some bushes; she also shared that she had been subject to other sexual offences throughout her life and that she had not felt able to share this until a campus sexual assault bill proposed by the Green Party came up.

Clark graduated from Burnaby South Senior Secondary before attending Simon Fraser University (SFU), the Sorbonne in France and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland to major in political science and religious studies.

She did not graduate from any post-secondary institution.

In the 2017 provincial election, the Liberals were reduced to 43 seats—one short of a majority.

Following a confidence and supply agreement between the NDP and Green Party, Clark's minority government was defeated 44–42, and NDP leader John Horgan succeeded her as the premier on July 18.

Clark subsequently announced that she was resigning as Liberal leader effective August 4 and leaving politics.