It is, once again, the “Glorious Thirteenth,” as a generation of aging Liberals even today recall with wonder and pride. It was on December 13, 1979, that Prime Minister Joe Clark’s young Progressive Conservative government was defeated on a confidence vote in the Commons.
Where should I start -- beyond noting that the fact that neither the CBC nor any other Canadian network has yet produced a movie highlighting the events of the “Glorious Thirteenth” illustrates again how many elites in academia and journalism simply have no idea how to work with the historical material our nation’s past has left them with to work from -- in describing the events?
Well, I’d note that on the evening the Clark government fell – one of the most exciting nights in Canadian political history, I would argue – the Opposition Liberals had no leader. Former PM Pierre Trudeau, after being defeated by Mr. Clark in May of that same year, had announced his resignation. Yet, the Liberals proceeded just the same (perhaps buoyed by the knowledge that, even as they had lost power, they had still beat the Conservatives by over 4% in the popular vote in the May election).
So tight was the expected vote that a Liberal MP was even brought into the Commons chamber on a stretcher – he had been in hospital – to ensure the Grits had the numbers to win.
No one knew, until the voting began, who would prevail. As we now know, the Liberals and the NDP voted in favour of bringing down the government; the six Social Credit members opted to abstain; and three PC members were absent for the vote. The result: Joe Clark's government was defeated 139-133 and an election was called for February, 1980.
The formerly resigned Liberal leader, Pierre Trudeau? He changed his mind and led his party into battle again – this time to a majority victory just over two months later. This was a comeback, in Canadian political history terms, of Macdonaldian proportions.
For me, I’ve always enjoyed recalling the Glorious Thirteenth for many reasons. First, it was my dear friend Bob Rae whose amendment to the original motion was the one the House voted upon in defeating Clark. Only six years later it was a Rae motion that the Ontario Legislature agreed to that defeated the fledgling Ontario government of Conservative Frank Miller, bringing Liberal David Peterson to power. I’ve long felt that is a shame that Bob Rae was never able to present or amend another motion that might have defeated another government, giving him a political hat-trick of historic proportions!
And, in a bit of political history trivia hardly known, Bob’s motion was written on the typewriter of my friend Peter O’Malley, then a young assistant in Ed Broadbent’s office. Where is that historic typewriter today, I wonder?
Lastly, let us not forget to give Joe Clark his due. Though his was but a short-lived government, Canada's 16th Prime Minister made history when he summoned to the federal cabinet Canada’s first-ever female foreign affairs minister, Flora MacDonald, and first-ever Black Canadian, Lincoln Alexander, who was given the post of Minister of Labour.
And even today, my hero and friend, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is known to tear up in gratitude of the work by the Clark government in helping to free six Americans from the grips of revolutionaries in Iran who had invaded the U.S. Embassy and taken American diplomats hostage. Canada's embassy staff in Iran, led by Ambassador Ken Taylor, put themselves at risk by sheltering the Americans for several weeks before helping to spirit them out of the country.
A historic anniversary, one that should be made into a movie.
But probably never will be. Such is Canada. But I digress.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also proudly served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.
So tight was the expected vote that a Liberal MP was even brought into the Commons chamber on a stretcher – he had been in hospital – to ensure the Grits had the numbers to win.
No one knew, until the voting began, who would prevail. As we now know, the Liberals and the NDP voted in favour of bringing down the government; the six Social Credit members opted to abstain; and three PC members were absent for the vote. The result: Joe Clark's government was defeated 139-133 and an election was called for February, 1980.
The formerly resigned Liberal leader, Pierre Trudeau? He changed his mind and led his party into battle again – this time to a majority victory just over two months later. This was a comeback, in Canadian political history terms, of Macdonaldian proportions.
For me, I’ve always enjoyed recalling the Glorious Thirteenth for many reasons. First, it was my dear friend Bob Rae whose amendment to the original motion was the one the House voted upon in defeating Clark. Only six years later it was a Rae motion that the Ontario Legislature agreed to that defeated the fledgling Ontario government of Conservative Frank Miller, bringing Liberal David Peterson to power. I’ve long felt that is a shame that Bob Rae was never able to present or amend another motion that might have defeated another government, giving him a political hat-trick of historic proportions!
And, in a bit of political history trivia hardly known, Bob’s motion was written on the typewriter of my friend Peter O’Malley, then a young assistant in Ed Broadbent’s office. Where is that historic typewriter today, I wonder?
Lastly, let us not forget to give Joe Clark his due. Though his was but a short-lived government, Canada's 16th Prime Minister made history when he summoned to the federal cabinet Canada’s first-ever female foreign affairs minister, Flora MacDonald, and first-ever Black Canadian, Lincoln Alexander, who was given the post of Minister of Labour.
And even today, my hero and friend, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is known to tear up in gratitude of the work by the Clark government in helping to free six Americans from the grips of revolutionaries in Iran who had invaded the U.S. Embassy and taken American diplomats hostage. Canada's embassy staff in Iran, led by Ambassador Ken Taylor, put themselves at risk by sheltering the Americans for several weeks before helping to spirit them out of the country.
A historic anniversary, one that should be made into a movie.
But probably never will be. Such is Canada. But I digress.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also proudly served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel. Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.