Michael Clark (Canadian politician)
Encyclopedia
Michael Clark was a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 physician and politician from Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

.

Early life

Born in Belford, Northumberland
Belford, Northumberland
Belford is a village and civil parish in Northumberland, England about halfway between Alnwick and Berwick-upon-Tweed, a few miles inland from the east coast and just off the Great North Road, the A1...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, he immigrated to Olds, Alberta, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 in 1902. He was a physician in England prior to immigrating to Alberta, Canada. He became involved in politics after homesteading, because he was not able to practice medicine in Canada.

Political career

Clark first ran as a Liberal
Alberta Liberal Party
The Alberta Liberal Party is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. Originally founded in 1905, when the province was created, it was the dominant political party until 1921 when it was defeated. It has never been in government since that time...

 candidate in the Rosebud
Rosebud (provincial electoral district)
Rosebud was a historical Alberta provincial electoral district, created in 1905 when Alberta first became a province.The riding was short lived, however, as it disappeared in 1909 when it was split to form the ridings of Cochrane and Didsbury as well as the north part of Rocky Mountain.-1905...

 electoral district in the 1905 Alberta general election
Alberta general election, 1905
The Alberta general election of 1905 was the first general election held in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on 9 November 1905, to elect members of the Alberta legislature to the 1st Alberta Legislative Assembly, shortly after the province was created out of the Northwest Territories...

. He was defeated by provincial Conservative
Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta
The Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta is a provincial centre-right party in the Canadian province of Alberta...

 party candidate Cornelius Hiebert
Cornelius Hiebert
Cornelius "Don" Hiebert was a politician from Alberta, Canada.-Early life:Hiebert was born in Sea of Azov, Russia and lived in Russia and attended school until he was 13 years old, when his family moved to Manitoba, Canada. He worked in a little general store until he decided to move to Didsbury,...

.

Clark ran for a seat to the Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

 in the 1908 Canadian federal election
Canadian federal election, 1908
The Canadian federal election of 1908 was held on October 26 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 11th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier's Liberal Party of Canada was re-elected for a fourth consecutive term in government with a majority government...

 in the Red Deer
Red Deer (electoral district)
Red Deer is a federal electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1908.-History:This riding was created in 1907 from Calgary and Strathcona ridings. At the time this was an overwhelmingly rural riding with only the then small town of Red...

 district as a candidate of the Liberal Party
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

. He defeated Conservative candidate George Root to win the new district and his first term in office. Clark would run for his second term in office in the 1911 Canadian federal election
Canadian federal election, 1911
The Canadian federal election of 1911 was held on September 21 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 12th Parliament of Canada.-Summary:...

; this time, he defeated Conservative challeneger and future Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) Alexander McGillivray
Alexander McGillivray (Alberta politician)
Alexander Andrew McGillivray was a lawyer and provincial level politician from Alberta, Canada. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta representing the electoral district of Calgary from 1926 to 1930...

.

Clark would join the board of directors for the University of Alberta
University of Alberta
The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...

 in 1911 and serve in that position for a year. He would run for his 3rd term in office as a supporter of the Unionist
Unionist Party (Canada)
The Unionist Party was formed in 1917 by Members of Parliament in Canada who supported the "Union government" formed by Sir Robert Borden during the First World War....

 government defeating former Alberta MLA William Puffer
William Puffer
William Franklin Puffer was a Canadian politician who served in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1905 until 1917. Born in Ontario, he came west and settled in Lacombe, where he operated a butchery, among other interests...

. Clark would join the Progressive Party of Canada
Progressive Party of Canada
The Progressive Party of Canada was a political party in Canada in the 1920s and 1930s. It was linked with the provincial United Farmers parties in several provinces and, in Manitoba, ran candidates and formed governments as the Progressive Party of Manitoba...

 in 1920 and return to the Liberals just a year later due to his opposition of class based politics practiced by the United Farmers of Alberta
United Farmers of Alberta
The United Farmers of Alberta is an association of Alberta farmers that has served many different roles throughout its history as a lobby group, a political party, and as a farm-supply retail chain. Since 1934 it has primarily been an agricultural supply cooperative headquartered in Calgary...

. He ran for the Liberals
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

 in the Mackenzie
Mackenzie (electoral district)
Mackenzie was a federal electoral district in Saskatchewan, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1904 to 1997.This riding was created in 1903, when Saskatchewan was still a part of the Northwest Territories...

 electoral district in Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

 in the 1921 Canadian federal election
Canadian federal election, 1921
The Canadian federal election of 1921 was held on December 6, 1921 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 14th Parliament of Canada. The Union government that had governed Canada through the First World War was defeated, and replaced by a Liberal government under the young leader...

 but was defeated by Progressive candidate Milton Neil Campbell
Milton Neil Campbell
Milton Neil Campbell was a Canadian politician. He represented the electoral district of Mackenzie from 1921 to 1933, in the Canadian House of Commons....

 and lost his seat.

External links

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