Ottawa’s Greatest Mandarin

Clifford Clark was Canada’s deputy minister of finance from 1932 until 1952— 20 years that encompassed not only the Great Depression, but World War Two as well. InBehind the Scenes: The Life and Work of William Clifford Clark, Robert Wardhaugh does a masterful job in bringing to life the enormous achievements of a pioneer public servant who served his country during these challenging years with honour, dedication and intelligence. In this book, we catch a glimpse of Canada’s golden age of public administration, told through the biography of an intensely private man who was loath to draw attention to himself and was committed to doing his work “behind the scenes.”

Here is how Wardhaugh outlines Clark’s remarkable contributions:

He was the driving force behind the creation of the Bank of Canada; he introduced the federal government to national housing policy; his management of the economy during the Great Depression led to a fundamental rethinking...