CANADA: Casual Joe Takes a Fall

A no-confidence upset brings down Clark's Tory government

When Speaker James Jerome ordered the "vote on division" at 9:50 p.m., the packed public gallery in Canada's House of Commons stirred with excitement. The balloting took only eleven minutes. When it was over, the Progressive Conservative government of Prime Minister Joe Clark, just 6½ months in office, had been stunningly upset. By a vote of 139 to 133, the Tories went down to defeat on a no-confidence motion supported by the combined opposition of Pierre Elliott Trudeau's Liberals (114 seats) and the New...

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