Christy Clark

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For the American soap actress, see Christie Clark.

Christina Joan Clark (born October 29, 1965, in Burnaby, British Columbia) is a former Canadian politician, who sat as a member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia representing the riding of Port Moody-Westwood as a member of the BC Liberal Party. Clark attended Simon Fraser University, the Sorbonne (France) and the University of Edinburgh (Scotland, UK).

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[edit] Politics

Clark was first elected to the legislature in 1996, 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. 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 legislature.

[edit] Education minister

Following the Liberal Party's election victory in 2001, Premier Gordon Campbell appointed Clark Minister of Education and Deputy Premier. She brought in a number of reforms focused on increasing accountability, strengthening parental power in the decision-making process, and providing parents greater choice and flexibility in the school system. These changes were controversial in some quarters, particularly amongst teachers and school board officials.

In 2001, Clark gave birth to her first child, Hamish Marissen-Clark, with husband Mark Marissen, who was recently named by federal Liberal Party leader Stéphane Dion as the party's National Campaign Co-Chair for the upcoming federal elections.

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

[edit] Minister of children and family development

In 2004, Clark was appointed to a new portfolio as Minister of Children and Family Development after Minister Gordon Hogg was forced to resign due to conflict of interest allegations.

[edit] Resignation from government

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 3-year old son, Hamish.

[edit] Run for mayor of Vancouver

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 a mere 69 votes out of 2,100 votes cast. Sullivan was subsequently elected Mayor of Vancouver.

[edit] The Christy Clark Show and other endeavours

Clark has been hosting the "The Christy Clark Show", airing weekdays on CKNW 980 AM in Vancouver since August 27, 2007. She is also an editorial columnist for the The Province newspaper since September 2006 and is associated with the executive search firm Burrard Executive Search Inc.

She has served as columnist for the Vancouver Sun newspaper during the 2005 BC Provincial Election and an election analyst for Global BC and CTV Newsnet during the 2006 Canadian Federal Election

Although she now says she no longer has any interest in a political career, Clark remains touted as a potential successor to BC Premier Gordon Campbell, Leader of the BC Liberal Party. A May 2006 Strategic Communications poll of British Columbians showed Finance Minister Carole Taylor as the favourite, followed by Labour Minister Mike de Jong tied with Clark as second choice.

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Barbara E. Coping		 MLA for Port Moody-Burnaby Mountain
1996–2001		 Succeeded by
Riding Ceased to Exist
Preceded by
Riding did not exist		 MLA for Port Moody-Westwood
2001–2005		 Succeeded by
Iain Black