Joseph Andrew Clarke (September 20, 1869 – July 27, 1941) was a Canadian politician and lawyer. He served twice as mayor of Edmonton, Alberta, was a candidate for election to the House of Commons of Canada and the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, and was a member of the Yukon Territorial Council (precursor to the Yukon Legislative Assembly). Early life Clarke was born in Osnabruck Center, Ontario. He was educated in Prescott and Brockville, Ontario, and joined the North-West Mounted Police in 1892 in Regina, Saskatchewan. He returned to Ontario shortly thereafter, only to be charged by the RNWMP with desertion. He was fined one hundred dollars, but received no further sanction in part because the magistrate was his uncle. After his brief policing career, Clarke studied law at Osgoode Hall in Toronto, Ontario. Upon graduating, he moved to the Yukon to take part in the Klondike gold rush. While there, he was admitted to the bar and spent two years (1903–1904) as an appointed member of the Yukon Territorial Council. He moved to Edmonton to practice law in 1908. Once there, he married Gwendolen Asbury on October 9, 1911; the pair had three children. Edmonton politics Joseph Clarke ran in a total of twenty-seven Edmonton municipal elections, more than any person before or since (as municipal elections in Edmonton now occur only every four years, this record is unlikely ever to be broken). In all, he ran for mayor seventeen times (winning five such elections) and for alderman ten times (being elected three times). Clarke's first attempt at municipal office took place during the February 1912 election, when he ran for the position of alderman on Edmonton City Council. He was elected to a one-year term. Rather than seek re-election in the next election, he ran for mayor, finishing in last place in a three candidate field. He returned to city council after being elected to a two-year term as an alderman in the 1913 election. During this council term, he forged a temporary alliance with mayor William McNamara against those who wanted to drive prostitution and gambling out of the city. The alliance disintegrated after the two came to blows in a council meeting. Clarke lost his re-election, bid, finishing eighth of fourteen candidates in the 1915 election. Unsuccessful bids for mayor followed in 1916 and 1917 before he was elected to that office in the 1918. During his