Austin Lloyd Clarke was a politician in Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba

Legislative Assembly of Manitoba

The Legislative Assembly of Manitoba and the lieutenant governor form the Legislature of Manitoba, the legislature of the Canadian province of Manitoba. Fifty-seven members are elected to this assembly in provincial general elections, all in single-member constituencies with first-past-the-post...

 as a Liberal-Progressive

Manitoba Liberal Party

The Manitoba Liberal Party is a political party in Manitoba, Canada. Its roots can be traced to the late nineteenth-century, following the province's creation in 1870.-Origins and early development :...

 representative from 1941 to 1945.

Early life and education

Clarke was born in Cornwall

Cornwall, Ontario

Cornwall is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada and the seat of the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, Ontario. Cornwall is Ontario's easternmost city, located on the St...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 to a family that traced its background to the United Empire Loyalist migration. He was educated in Cornwall, and later moved to Manitoba.

Career

Clarke worked as a sales manager, and was president of A. Lloyd CLarke & Co. Ltd. and the Manitoba Motor League. He served as the reeve of the municipality of St. Vital from 1938 to 1941, and was also active in freemasonry

Freemasonry

Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...

.

Political life

He was elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1941 provincial election

Manitoba general election, 1941

Manitoba's general election of April 22, 1941 was held to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Manitoba, Canada.This election was held shortly after the formation of a coalition government in December 1940...

, defeating Cooperative Commonwealth Federation candidate Edwin Hansford

Edwin Hansford

Edwin A. Hansford was a politician in Manitoba, Canada, and served as leader of that province's Co-operative Commonwealth Federation between 1948 and 1952.Hansford was born in the Annapolis Valley region of Nova Scotia...

 in the constituency of St. Boniface. In parliament, Clarke was a backbench supporter of the governments of John Bracken

John Bracken

John Bracken, PC was an agronomist, the 11th Premier of Manitoba and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada ....

 and Stuart Garson

Stuart Garson

Stuart Sinclair Garson, was a Canadian politician and lawyer. He served as the 12th Premier of Manitoba from 1943 to 1948, and later became a federal cabinet minister....

.

He died in 1945.