Of all the Prime Ministers that someone could punch…. Joe Clark?

Perhaps it was a Tory, still bitter over the fall of the Clark government of 1979?

Considering some of the past Prime Ministers currently in the news, you would think that the sixteenth Prime Minister of Canada, Former Prime Minister Joe Clark, could wander around in relative anonymity, but on the mean streets of Montreal it seems the Joe is the one most at risk.

Clark, 68, was recently attacked by someone walking down a Montreal street, who after verifying the identity of Canada’s short lived Conservative PM of the seventies , promptly punched him once in the nose and fled to the shadows of the Montreal urban forests.

Clark was reported as rather shocked by the incident but for the most part unhurt from his ordeal. While former P. M.’s are normally provided with RCMP protection, things had become so blasé as a former Prime Minister that Clark had long ago allowed his personal guards to go on to other duties.

It’s a decision that now is apparently under review.

The RCMP turned the file over to the Montreal Urban Police, who are investigating the assault. Clark described his assailant as a white Anglo-Saxon, in his forties or fifties. Considering the emigration of White Anglo Saxons from Montreal over the last two to three decades, one would think that it’s only a matter of time before the mystery puncher is identified.

After all, how many white, Anglo-Saxon males can be left in Quebec these days?

Especially one that would even know who a Canadian Prime Minister was.

Former PM Clark punched in Montreal
Glen McGregor
CanWest News Service
Friday, December 07, 2007


OTTAWA - Joe Clark was assaulted on a downtown Montreal street last month by a man who asked if he was the past prime minister before punching him in the face and leaving him with a bloody nose.

Clark says he was walking down Sherbrooke St. on the evening of Nov. 20 on his way to a speech by former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright when he heard someone call out to him.

"A fellow called my name and said: 'Are you Joe Clark, the former prime minister?'" Clark told CanWest News Service Friday. "My initial response was to say: 'Hi' and off I went. He then came along beside me and repeated it. And I said: 'Yes.' And he then hit me once on the face. He then swiveled and was away quickly."

Clark was left shocked but not seriously hurt, he said.

"He may well have been aiming to break either my glasses or nose but he did neither. My nose sort of bloodied briefly, internally, but nothing serious," he said. "I was stunned. It hasn't happened to me before."

Like all former prime ministers, Clark is entitled to protection from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, should he or the police feel he needs it. But he says he hasn't had an RCMP bodyguard in some time.

"The arrangement I've had with the police for some time is that if either they or I think there's a need, then we trigger something."

Clark, 68, says he notified the RCMP and they referred the incident to the Montreal police, who interviewed him in detail.

The assailant was in his 40s or 50s, Clark said. "He was a white Anglo-Saxon. He was unaccented in his speech to me."

Clark has been in touch with both the RCMP and Montreal police over the past week but he says they haven't made any arrest in the case.

"My impression from the Mounted Police is that, as a result of this incident, they're going to conduct a fresh assessment."

In an e-mail, RCMP spokesperson Const. Pat Flood said: "The RCMP determines the level of protection to be provided to its protectees by evaluating the threat and determining the most appropriate measure to take."

For security reasons, specific details cannot be discussed, she wrote.

Clark served as prime minister for nine months in 1979-80 before his government fell in a non-confidence motion.

He later served as external affairs minister under Brian Mulroney's government and returned as Progressive Conservative party leader in 1998.

While some prime ministers - Mulroney and Pierre Trudeau among them - continued to evoke strong negative reactions long after they left office, Clark was not a particularly controversial figure. His low-profile earned him the nickname "Joe Who?" and he got off to a bad start after first winning the Progressive Conservative leadership in 1976 by losing his luggage on a trip around the world intended to boost his profile.

Physical attacks on Canadian politicians remain rare.

The RCMP drew intense criticism for the handling of several incidents involving former prime minister Jean Chretien.

In 1996, Chretien was confronted by a protester at a Flag Day event and grabbed the man by the throat before the Mounties intervened.

And at an event in Charlottetown in 2000, a mischief-maker threw a pie into Chretien's face from close range.

The RCMP also was criticized for allowing a man with a knife to break into the prime minister's official residence, 24 Sussex Drive.

Since last year, Clark has been teaching at McGill University's Centre for Developing-Area Studies in Montreal.