Kevin Clarke (politician)

Kevin Mark Clarke (born March 21, 1964) is a Canadian activist, perennial candidate, and former educator, who is the founder and former leader of The People's Political Party. He is considered one of the most recognizable homeless persons in the city of Toronto,^[2] campaigning on "the people's rights."

Kevin Clarke
President of The People's Political Party
In office 2021–2023
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Office distablished
Leader of The People's Political Party
In office September 3, 2011 – 2021
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Troy Young
Personal details
Born	Kevin Mark Clarke (1964-03-21) March 21, 1964 (age 60) St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica[1]
Political party	The People's Political Party

Clarke advocates for criminal justice reform, and has proposed 'The Inmate Monitored Education System' (TIME), a program to reduce recidivism among first-time offenders. He also campaigns on the issues of poverty and homelessness.

Biography

In the 1980s, Clarke worked as a Grade 5 teacher at Chester Le Junior Public School in Scarborough.

He worked in the automobile business during the early 1990s. He sought election as Mayor of East York in the 1994 municipal election, describing himself as an "advertising consultant, political rebel and welfare recipient". He promised to resign after three months if elected, and to form a provincial party for ordinary people.^[3]

Clarke first campaigned for the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 1995 general election, challenging New Democratic Party Premier Bob Rae in York South. He received 170 votes, finishing seventh in a field of nine candidates. During this election, Clarke vowed to oppose the "pimps" of government who "live off the avails of the people".^[4]

Clarke campaigned for York South again in 1996 after Rae retired from the legislature, and finished last in a field of six candidates with 70 votes. The winner was Gerard Kennedy of the Ontario Liberal Party.

He sought election to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1997 federal election, and finished sixth out of eight candidates in Broadview—Greenwood with 211 votes. The winner was Dennis Mills of the Liberal Party of Canada. During this election, Clarke described himself as a salesman and a businessman.

He became homeless in 1998 after his auto business failed. For the next seven years, he frequently sang and preached on the streets of Toronto.^{[citation needed]} He was also actively involved in public affairs and was a member of the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee.

Clarke ran for the Ontario legislature a third time in a by-election for Beaches—East York on September 20, 2001. He finished sixth out of eight candidates with 94 votes. The winner was Michael Prue of the New Democratic Party.

Clarke campaigned for Mayor of Toronto in the 2000, 2003 and 2006 municipal elections, and ran for Toronto City Council in by-elections held in 1998 and 2001. His primary issues were street and water safety, though he also emphasized anti-drug policies. He ran his 2001 campaign out of a homeless shelter which he used every night.^[5] In the 1998 campaign, his age was listed as thirty-four.^[6]

He took part in an unusual protest during the 2003 campaign, by tearing up pieces of a telephone book and scattering them to the wind during lunch hour at a busy Toronto intersection. "You care if there's paper on the street," he said to passers-by, "but you don't care if there's people on the street".^[7] He also described himself as an "ex-con, ex-drug dealer and ex-teacher".^[8]

Clarke finally found housing again in 2005,^[9] and worked as an actor during this period.^[10]

He was a candidate running for the 2010 Toronto mayoral election. Clarke has been known to employ eccentric tactics to reach the public during his campaign, including speeches while aboard the TTC and rollerblading whilst shouting campaign slogans on the road in Kingston Road and Lawrence Avenue East area.

In the 2011 Ontario election he ran as leader of the People's Political Party.^[11]

Clarke ran for mayor in the 2018 election,^[12] where he finished with 3,853 votes.

Clarke is known for attending debates and causing a commotion. He was not invited to a debate Toronto Centre By-election in 2013; however, he showed up and began yelling at the Liberal Party candidate Chrystia Freeland and New Democratic Candidate Linda McQuaig. He was subsequently arrested, and the debate was cancelled.^[13] Additionally in 2019, he attended a debate on the environment and climate change ahead of the 2019 federal election in Scarborough-Guildwood, where only members of the major political parties were invited. He entered holding a large hand-painted "Vote Kevin Clarke" sign and immediately began yelling and criticizing the debate organizers as well as Liberal Party incumbent candidate John McKay. Upon discussion between the organizers and invited candidates, he was eventually allowed to participate in the debate on the condition he remained orderly.^[14]

Clarke ran in the 2020 Toronto Centre federal by-election.

Clarke unsuccessfully ran for Toronto mayor in the 2022 mayoral election and the 2023 mayoral by-election.

He was a candidate in the 2023 Scarborough—Guildwood provincial by-election.

Electoral record

Toronto mayoral elections

Year	Votes	Vote %	Place
2000	4,147	0.68	7th
2003	804	0.12	12th
2006	2,081	0.36	12th
2010	1,411	0.173	14th
2014	547	0.06	18th
2018	3,853	0.51	7th
2022	4,333	0.79	9th
2023	265	0.04	34th

Ontario provincial by-election, 27 July 2023: Scarborough—Guildwood
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Andrea Hazell	5,640	36.37	-9.94	$85,245
	Progressive Conservative	Gary Crawford	4,562	29.42	-2.09	$57,878
	New Democratic	Thadsha Navaneethan	4,041	26.06	+9.40	$80,598
	Stop the New Sex-Ed Agenda	Tony Walton	508	3.28		$26,608
	New Blue	Danielle Height	151	0.97	-0.29	$10,691
	Green	Tara McMahon	146	0.94	-1.89	$0
	No Affiliation	Reginald Tull	139	0.90		$8,266
	Canadians' Choice	Paul Fromm	66	0.43		$0
	Independent	Kevin Clarke	57	0.37	-0.14	$7,002
	Independent	Habiba Desai	52	0.34		$0
	Independent	Abu Alam	48	0.31		$395
	Independent	John Turmel	20	0.13		$0
Total valid votes/Expense limit			15,430	99.49	+0.37
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			79	0.51	-0.37
Turnout			15,509	21.84	-19.79
Eligible voters			70,655
	Liberal hold		Swing		-3.90

v t e 2022 Ontario general election: Scarborough—Guildwood
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Mitzie Hunter	13,405	46.31	+12.96	$87,259
	Progressive Conservative	Alicia Vianga	9,123	31.51	−1.62	$78,144
	New Democratic	Veronica Javier	4,824	16.66	−10.96	$42,008
	Green	Dean Boulding	818	2.83	+0.38	$381
	New Blue	Opa Hope Day	366	1.26		$1,980
	Ontario Party	William Moore	265	0.92		$0
	People's Political Party	Kevin Clarke	148	0.51	+0.09	$0
Total valid votes/expense limit			28,949	99.12	+0.32	$98,214
Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots			256	0.88	-0.32
Turnout			29,205	41.63	-11.55
Eligible voters			69,754
	Liberal hold		Swing		+7.29
Source(s) "Summary of Valid Votes Cast for Each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 2022. Archived from the original on 2023-05-18. "Statistical Summary by Electoral District" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 2022. Archived from the original on 2023-05-21.

v t e 2021 Canadian federal election: Scarborough—Guildwood
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John McKay	22,944	61.1	±0.0
	Conservative	Carmen Wilson	7,998	21.3	-1.1
	New Democratic	Michelle Spencer	5,091	13.6	+2.4
	People's	James Bountrogiannis	1,096	2.9	+1.4
	Independent	Kevin Clarke	155	0.4	+0.1
	Centrist	Aslam Khan	129	0.3	N/A
	Independent	Opa Day	85	0.2	N/A
	Canadian Nationalist	Gus Stefanis	52	0.1	-0.1
Total valid votes			37,550	98.6
Total rejected ballots			548	1.4
Turnout			38,098	58.0
Eligible voters			65,711
	Liberal hold		Swing		+0.6
Source: Elections Canada[15]

v t e Canadian federal by-election, October 26, 2020: Toronto Centre Resignation of Bill Morneau
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Marci Ien	10,581	42.0	-15.4	$116,839[citation needed]
	Green	Annamie Paul	8,250	32.7	+25.6	$100,008[citation needed]
	New Democratic	Brian Chang	4,280	17.0	-5.3	$71,222[citation needed]
	Conservative	Benjamin Gauri Sharma	1,435	5.7	-6.4	$0[citation needed]
	People's	Baljit Bawa	269	1.1	–	$22,752[citation needed]
	Libertarian	Keith Komar	135	0.5	–
	Independent	Kevin Clarke	123	0.5	–
	Free	Dwayne Cappelletti	76	0.3	–	$1,570[citation needed]
	No affiliation	Above Znoneofthe	56	0.2	–	$0[citation needed]
Total valid votes			25,205	100.0	–
Total rejected ballots			118	0.5	-0.2
Turnout			25,323	30.9	-35.2
Electors on lists			81,861
	Liberal hold		Swing		-20.5
Elections Canada[16][17]

v t e 2019 Canadian federal election: Scarborough—Guildwood
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	John McKay	26,123	61.12	+1.08	$79,793.87
	Conservative	Quintus Thuraisingham	9,553	22.35	-4.15	$57,402.46
	New Democratic	Michelle Spencer	4,806	11.24	-0.02	none listed
	Green	Tara McMahon	1,220	2.85	+1.41	none listed
	People's	Jigna Jani	648	1.52	-	none listed
	Independent	Kevin Clarke	112	0.26	-0.16	none listed
	Canadian Nationalist	Gus Stefanis	85	0.20	–	none listed
	Independent	Stephen Abara	70	0.16	-	none listed
	Independent	Kathleen Marie Holding	70	0.16	-	none listed
	Canada's Fourth Front	Farhan Alvi	55	0.13	-	$791.00
Total valid votes/expense limit			42,742	98.66
Total rejected ballots			580	1.34	+0.87
Turnout			43,322	62.89	-1.69
Eligible voters			68,886
	Liberal hold		Swing		+2.61
Source: Elections Canada[18][19]

2018 Ontario general election: Toronto Centre
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Suze Morrison	23,688	53.66	+37.87
	Liberal	David Morris	11,986	27.15	-31.07
	Progressive Conservative	Meredith Cartwright	6,234	14.12	-4.43
	Green	Adam Sommerfeld	1,377	3.12	-1.30
	Libertarian	Judi Falardeau	371	0.84	-0.23
	Special Needs	Dan King	117	0.27	-0.12
	New People's Choice	Cameron James	110	0.25
	Stop the New Sex-Ed Agenda	Theresa Snell	102	0.23
	The People	Kevin Clarke	98	0.22	+0.06
	Canadian Economic	Wanda Marie Fountain	65	0.15
Total valid votes			44,148	100.0
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			404	0.92
Turnout			44,552	54.30
Eligible voters			82,044
	New Democratic gain from Liberal		Swing		+34.47
Source: Elections Ontario[20]

2015 Canadian federal election: Scarborough—Guildwood
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	John McKay	25,167	60.04	+24.25	$77,572.69
	Conservative	Chuck Konkel	11,108	26.50	-8.19	$80,342.41
	New Democratic	Laura Casselman	4,720	11.26	-15.44	$14,956.71
	Green	Kathleen Holding	606	1.45	-0.78	–
	Independent	Kevin Clarke	175	0.42	–	–
	Marijuana	Paul Coulbeck	141	0.34	-0.26	–
Total valid votes/Expense limit			41,917	99.53		$198,726.79
Total rejected ballots			198	0.47
Turnout			42,115	64.58
Eligible voters			65,217
	Liberal hold		Swing		+16.22
Source: Elections Canada[21][22]

2014 Ontario general election: Scarborough—Agincourt
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Soo Wong	17,332	49.84	+2.82
	Progressive Conservative	Liang Chen	12,041	34.63	+2.64
	New Democratic	Alex Wilson	4,105	11.81	-3.94
	Green	Pauline Thompson	907	2.61	+0.34
	The People	Kevin Clarke	387	1.11
Total valid votes			34,772	100.0
	Liberal hold		Swing		+0.09
Source: Elections Ontario[23]

Ontario provincial by-election, February 13, 2014: Thornhill Resignation of Peter Shurman
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Gila Martow	13,438	47.89	+1.18
	Liberal	Sandra Yeung Racco	11,671	41.60	+0.68
	New Democratic	Cindy Hackelberg	1,905	6.79	-2.17
	Green	Teresa Pun	404	1.44	-0.24
	Libertarian	Gene Balfour	296	1.05	-0.34
	Freedom	Erin Goodwin	153	0.55	+0.22
	People's Political Party	Kevin Clarke	144	0.51
	Pauper	John Turmel	47	0.17
Total valid votes			28,058	100.00
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			126	0.45
Turnout			28,184	27.36
Eligible voters			103,021
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		+0.25
Source: Elections Ontario[24]

v t e Canadian federal by-election, November 25, 2013: Toronto Centre
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Chrystia Freeland	17,194	49.38	+8.37	$ 97,609.64
	New Democratic	Linda McQuaig	12,640	36.30	+6.09	99,230.30
	Conservative	Geoff Pollock	3,004	8.63	−14.01	75,557.39
	Green	John Deverell	1,034	2.97	−2.05	21,521.10
	Progressive Canadian	Dorian Baxter	453	1.30		–
	Libertarian	Judi Falardeau	236	0.68	+0.18	–
	Independent	Kevin Clarke	84	0.24		560.00
	Independent	John "The Engineer" Turmel	56	0.16		–
	Independent	Leslie Bory	51	0.15		633.30
	Online	Michael Nicula	43	0.12		200.00
	Independent	Bahman Yazdanfar	26	0.07	−0.12	1,134.60
Total valid votes/expense limit			34,821	99.49	–	$ 101,793.06
Total rejected ballots			177	0.51	+0.12
Turnout			34,998	37.72	−25.21
Eligible voters			92,780
	Liberal hold		Swing		+1.14
By-election due to the resignation of Bob Rae.
Source(s) "November 25, 2013 By-elections Poll-by-poll results". Elections Canada. Retrieved August 20, 2020. "November 25, 2013 By-election – Financial Reports". Retrieved May 9, 2014.

v t e Ontario provincial by-election, September 6, 2012: Kitchener—Waterloo Resignation of Elizabeth Witmer
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Catherine Fife	18,599	39.87	+23.20
	Progressive Conservative	Tracey Weiler	14,851	31.83	-11.94
	Liberal	Eric Davis	11,194	23.99	-12.05
	Green	Stacey Danckert	1,525	3.27	+0.63
	Libertarian	Allan Dettweiler	156	0.33
	Freedom	David Driver	95	0.20	-0.05
	Communist	Elizabeth Rowley	85	0.18
	Independent	Garnet Bruce	77	0.17
	People's Political Party	Kevin Clarke	48	0.10
	Pauper	John Turmel	23	0.05
Total valid votes			46,653	100.00
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			128	0.27
Turnout			46,781	47.00
Eligible voters			99,544
	New Democratic gain from Progressive Conservative		Swing		+17.57
Source(s) Elections Ontario (2012). "Official return from the records / Rapport des registres officiels - Kitchener—Waterloo by-election" (PDF). Retrieved 2 June 2014.

2011 Ontario general election: Toronto—Danforth
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Peter Tabuns	20,062	54.01	+8.16
	Liberal	Marisa Sterling	11,369	30.60	+1.40
	Progressive Conservative	Rita Jethi	3,488	9.39	-1.89
	Green	Tim Whalley	1,354	3.64	-7.51
	Libertarian	John Recker	440	1.18	+0.01
	People's Political Party	Kevin Clarke	143	0.38
	Independent	Neil Mercer	110	0.30
	Freedom	Stéphane Vera	107	0.29
	Independent	John Richardson	75	0.20
Total valid votes			37,148	100.00
Rejected			157	0.42
Unmarked			45	0.12
Declined			24	0.06
Turnout			37,374	49.30
Eligible voters			75,815
	New Democratic hold		Swing		+3.38
Source: Elections Ontario[25]

Ontario provincial by-election, September 20, 2001: Beaches—East York
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Michael Prue	14,024	49.83	+4.26
	Liberal	Robert Hunter	10,289	36.56	+14.98
	Progressive Conservative	Mac Penney	2,821	10.02	-19.53
	Green	Peter Elgie	694	2.47	+1.47
	Family Coalition	Ray Scott	206	0.73	+0.12
	Independent	Kevin Clarke	94	0.35	–
	Independent	Vince Corriere	59	0.21	–
	Independent	Don King	51	0.18	–
Total valid votes			28,144	100.0	–
Elections Ontario:[26]

1997 Canadian federal election: Broadview—Greenwood
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Dennis Mills	21,108	49.76	-11.31
	New Democratic	Jack Layton	13,903	32.77	+18.82
	Reform	Brian Higgins	3,247	7.65	-3.64
	Progressive Conservative	Dianne Garrels	3,238	7.63	-1.71
	Green	Karen McCarthy	426	1.00	–
	Independent	Kevin Clarke	211	0.50	–
	Natural Law	Bob Hyman	205	0.48	-0.53
	Marxist–Leninist	Gurdev Singh	85	0.20	-0.04
Total valid votes			42,423	100.00	–

v t e Ontario provincial by-election, May 23, 1996: York South
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Gerard Kennedy	7,774	39.22
	New Democratic	David Miller	6,656	33.58
	Progressive Conservative	Rob Davis	5,093	25.69
	Independent	David Milne	151	0.76
	Libertarian	George Dance	77	0.39
	Independent	Kevin Clarke	70	0.35
Total valid votes			19,821	100.00
Rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			264
Turnout			20,085	51.38
Electors on the lists			39,092

v t e 1995 Ontario general election: York South
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Bob Rae	10,442	41.24	$39,100.07
	Progressive Conservative	Larry Edwards	7,726	30.51	$28,482.21
	Liberal	Hagood Hardy	6,025	23.79	$42,578.22
	Family Coalition	Don Pennell	305	1.20	$4,210.68
	Green	David James Cooper	219	0.86	$1,046.57
	Natural Law	Bob Hyman	176	0.70	$0.00
	Independent	Kevin Clarke	170	0.67	$1,164.66
	Libertarian	Roma Kelembet	153	0.60	$819.58
	Communist	Darrell Rankin	105	0.41	$59.00
Total valid votes			25,321	100.00
Rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			388
Turnout			25,709	69.13
Electors on the lists			37,192

1994 East York municipal election — Mayor

Candidate	Votes	%
Michael Prue	15,620	63.10
Bob Willis	6,295	25.43
Anne Sinclair	1,403	5.67
Kevin Clarke	788	3.18
June French	648	2.62
Total valid votes	24,754	100%

References

1. Cole, Desmond (17 May 2023). "On debate, disruption, and hostage takings". Yes, Everything!. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
2. "Fringe Candidate For Mayor Holds Up Debate At U Of T". CityNews. October 24, 2016. Retrieved November 3, 2020.
3. Toronto Star, 10 November 1994
4. Toronto Star, 5 June 1995
5. Mark Atkinson (November 30, 2001). "KEVIN CLARKE:He's concerned about the quality of drinking water". Toronto Observer. Archived from the original on 2005-12-14. Retrieved 2014-08-20.
6. Toronto Star, 29 October 1998
7. National Post, 11 November 2003
8. Toronto Star, 6 November 2003
9. http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_05.26.05/city/clarke.html November 4, 2005^{[dead link‍]}
10. Toronto Star, 4 April 2005
11. "Registered Political Parties". Elections Ontario. Archived from the original on 2014-06-02. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
12. "Elections - City of Toronto - List of Candidates". toronto.ca. 14 July 2017. Archived from the original on July 30, 2018. Retrieved July 30, 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
13. "Canadian Politician Kevin Clarke Disorderly at Debate". YouTube.
14. "Scarborough-Guildwood debate on environment 2019". YouTube.
15. "List of confirmed candidates – September 20, 2021 Federal Election". Elections Canada. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
16. "Toronto Centre: October 26, 2020, by-elections — Poll-by-poll results". Elections Canada. Retrieved September 16, 2021.
17. "October 26, 2020, By-elections: Official Voting Results". Elections Canada. Retrieved September 16, 2021.
18. "List of confirmed candidates". Elections Canada. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
19. "Official Voting Results". Elections Canada. Retrieved August 7, 2021.
20. "Summary of Valid Votes Cast for each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. p. 11. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
21. Elections Canada – Confirmed candidates for Scarborough—Guildwood, 30 September 2015
22. Elections Canada – Preliminary Election Expenses Limits for Candidates
23. "Valid Votes Cast for Each Candidate - 2014 General Election.pdf" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 2014. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
24. "Official return from the records / Rapport des registres officiels - Thornhill by-election" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-06-06. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
25. "Official return from the records / Rapport des registres officiels - Toronto—Danforth" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 2011. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
26. Elections Ontario. "Elections Ontario, By-election 2001, Summary of valid ballots for each candidate: Beaches-East York". Archived from the original on 2012-06-07. Retrieved 2012-03-21.

External links

• Kevin Clarke's People's Political Party