Steve Clark (politician)


Steve Clark is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He is a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. He represents the riding of Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes and has served as an MPP since 2010. On September 10, 2015 he was named co-deputy leader with Sylvia Jones.

Background

Clark was born in Brockville, Ontario on November 7, 1960. He lives in Brockville with his wife Deanna and their five children.

Politics

Clark served as mayor of Brockville from 1982 to 1991. First elected at age 22, he was the youngest mayor in Canada at the time. He later worked as an advertising salesman for the Brockville Recorder and Times, as an administrative assistant to Bob Runciman, and as the chief administrative officer of the township of Leeds and the Thousand Islands.
He was elected in a by-election on March 4, 2010 held to replace Bob Runciman who resigned to accept a position in the Canadian Senate. He was easily re-elected in 2011 and in 2014 both with large pluralities.
In September 2018 as Municipal Affairs Minister, he introduced controversial legislation intended to slash the size of Toronto city council. When this legislation was ruled unconstitutional, he supported the unprecedented step of invoking the notwithstanding clause to nullify the offended sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Clark was additionally a source for derision when the example he gave of the problems in Toronto city council and the need for Bill 5/31 was that city council spent 15 hours debating the city's budget, failing to mention that it was an 11 billion dollar budget.

Electoral record

Cabinet posts