Our 16^th Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Joe Clark, was born at High River, Alberta on this date in 1939. After earning both his B.A. and M.A. at the University of Alberta and proving himself a talented writer and journalist, he became a serious force in the Young Progressive Conservative organization. Later, he became an important advisor to federal Tory leader Robert Stanfield.Joe Clark was first elected to the Commons in 1972 and after winning the federal PC leadership in 1976, he became Prime Minister in 1979 handing Pierre Trudeau his only election loss.  He was sworn into office the day before he turned 40.After his defeat in the 1980 re-match against Pierre Trudeau, Clark would play a key role in the constitutional debates of the early 1980s. When the Tories returned to power in 1984 under the leadership of Brian Mulroney, Clark became a history-making Minister of External Affairs.  He was later appointed by PM Mulroney to the equally important post of Minister of Constitutional Affairs.Over many years Mr. Clark has been a valued supporter of my work in the field of political history so it is a particular personal pleasure to send out greetings and best wishes from Art’s History to this remarkable Canadian as he celebrates his 83^rd birthday today.As a Kingstonian, it is also a personal pleasure to send birthday greetings to my friend and our community’s MP, Mark Gerretsen.caption id="attachment_558403" align="alignleft" width="521" Joe Clark in victory, 1979/captionArthur 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.