Editing Joe Clark (section)

==Progressive Conservative leadership, 1998–2003==
One of the two PC candidates to survive the [[1993 Canadian federal election|1993 wipe-out]], [[Jean Charest]], became leader of the PC party following Campbell's resignation. After leading the party to a modest resurgence in the [[1997 Canadian federal election|1997 election]], winning 20 seats, Charest bowed to tremendous public pressure and left federal politics to become leader of the [[Quebec Liberal Party]] (unaffiliated with the federal [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberals]]). The party had no obvious candidate to fill Charest's shoes, and turned to Clark once again in 1998.  He was elected by a teleconference of PC members from around the country in which each of the party's [[riding association]]s was allocated 100 points. The points for each riding were then assigned on the basis of each candidate's share of votes within each riding association. Clark defeated [[Hugh Segal]], free-trade opponent [[David Orchard]], former Manitoba cabinet minister [[Brian Pallister]], and future [[Senate of Canada|Senator]] [[Michael Fortier]] for the leadership of the PC Party.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/275625360 |author=Shallit, Jeffrey |title=David Orchard spouts anti-U.S. rhetoric and racists sentiments |date=October 13, 1999 |work=[[The Record (Waterloo Region)|The Record]] |location=Kitchener, Ont. |via=[[ProQuest]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140511083452/https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/therecord/doc/275625360.html |archive-date=May 11, 2014 |id={{ProQuest|275625360}} |url-status=live}}</ref>

It took two years for Clark to return to Parliament.  He was elected for [[Kings—Hants]], Nova Scotia, in a by-election on September 11, 2000, after the incumbent MP, [[Scott Brison]], stood down in his favour.  This is common practice when a newly elected party leader does not already have a seat in Parliament.  For the [[2000 Canadian federal election|general election]] held two months later, Clark yielded Kings-Hants back to Brison and was elected as the MP for [[Calgary Centre]], by then deep in the heart of [[Canadian Alliance]] territory.

Clark ran on his previous experience as prime minister and External Affairs Minister. However, he faced a difficult task, with critics and opponents attacking him and the PC Party as a "vote for the past". [[Jean Chrétien]]'s governing Liberals were running on their successful economic record, and they were poised to regain the support that they lost in 1997, threatening the PC's 1997 gains in Ontario, Quebec, and the Atlantic provinces. The PC party lost ground in Quebec (due in part to the departure of Jean Charest to provincial politics), which resulted in three members of the PC caucus defecting to join the Liberal Party prior to the election.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/canadiangenerale2000unse/page/21 |title=The Canadian General Election of 2000 |author1=Dornan, Christopher |author2=Pammett, Jon H. |page=21 |date=2001 |publisher=Dundurn |isbn=978-1-55002-356-5 }}</ref> However, Clark was judged by audiences to be the best speaker during the 2000 election debates. The party lost seats to the Liberals, though it managed to hang onto the minimum 12 seats necessary to be recognized in the House of Commons as an official party and therefore qualify for research funding, committee memberships, and minimum speaking privileges. Aside from Clark's Calgary seat (one of only three Alberta seats that did not go to the Canadian Alliance), and one each in [[Manitoba]] and Quebec, the party's seats were concentrated in Tory bastions in the Atlantic provinces.  Clark continually promoted the idea that the PCs would eventually retake Ontario and form a federal government again. His vision for the party was one that was to the left of the Alliance, but to the right of the Liberals.

He soon realized that there was no chance of dislodging the Liberals as long as the centre-right remained split.  However, he wanted a merger on his terms.  He got his chance in 2001, when several dissident Alliance MPs, the most prominent one being Alliance deputy leader and party matriarch [[Deborah Grey]], left the Alliance caucus. The dissidents felt that Alliance leader [[Stockwell Day]] had not learned from mistakes made in the last election. While some of them rejoined the Alliance later, seven of them, led by [[Chuck Strahl]] of British Columbia and including Grey, refused and formed the [[Democratic Representative Caucus]]. The DRC quickly formed a joint caucus with the Tories with Clark as leader.

This lasted until 2002, when [[Stephen Harper]] ousted Day as Alliance leader. Harper wanted a closer union with the PCs, but Clark turned the offer down in April 2002, and all but two of the DRC members rejoined the Alliance. One of the two, [[Inky Mark]], eventually joined the PCs. Two by-election victories later in 2002 increased the PC caucus to 15 members and fourth place in the Commons.

Clark was selected by the media and many parliamentarians for three years in a row to be Canada's most effective opposition leader between 2000 and 2002, pursuing the Liberal government on issues such as [[Shawinigate]] and the [[Groupaction]] scandal. In his final mandate, Jean Chrétien repeatedly referred to Clark as the [[Leader of the Official Opposition (Canada)|Leader of the Opposition]] (Clark was not), much to the chagrin of the Canadian Alliance politicians who occupied the Opposition Leader's chair during the same period. Indeed, Chrétien and Clark had been fellow parliamentarians since the 1970s and they shared a mutual respect despite sitting on opposite benches.

Clark's personal popularity grew as, once again, scandal enveloped Chrétien's Liberal government. Clark was widely trusted by Canadians, but this, in his own words, did not translate into more votes and additional seats. Citing this, Clark announced his intention to step down as PC leader on August 6, 2002, at the PC Party's [[Edmonton]] policy convention. It was expected that a pro-Alliance merger candidate would succeed Clark, but Clark was instead replaced by [[Peter MacKay]] on May 31, 2003. MacKay had signed a controversial deal with Red Tory rival [[David Orchard]], promising not to merge the PC Party with the Alliance. Clark had always encouraged MacKay to keep Orchard and his followers within the PC camp.

MacKay immediately reversed his position on seeking a merger, and in 2003, 90% of PC Party delegates voted in favor of a merger with the Canadian Alliance.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}} Orchard unsuccessfully tried to block the merger and later joined the Liberal Party.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

===Legacy of second PC leadership===
In May 2003, the party finally overtook the [[New Democratic Party (Canada)|New Democratic Party]] as the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons, after by-election wins in [[Newfoundland and Labrador]] and [[Ontario]].

At the same time, the party was still $10&nbsp;million in debt from the 2000 election. The PC Party's membership had also dropped from 100,000 in 1998 to 45,000 card carrying PCs in May 2003.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/pc-membership-doubles-but-still-low-1.368135 |title=PC membership doubles but still low |date=April 8, 2003 |publisher=CBC News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107162736/http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2003/04/08/pc_membership030408.html |archive-date=November 7, 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> Clark's leadership of the Progressive Conservatives was also the subject of criticism from many [[Unite the Right (Canada)|United Alternative]] supporters, who argued that his staunch opposition to a merger with the Reform/Alliance parties helped divide the "conservative" vote during the tenure of [[Jean Chrétien]]. Some critics accused Clark of being more interested in helping the interests of his own party and own career than the Canadian conservative movement in general. Others attacked Clark's goal of the PC party regaining its former power as unrealistic.