Maureen McTeer - Definition and Overview

Maureen Anne McTeer (born February 27, 1952 in Ottawa) is an author and a lawyer, and the wife of Joe Clark, the 16th Prime Minister of Canada.

McTeer was born and raised in Ottawa, and worked as a staffer in Clark's office before marrying him in 1974. When Clark became leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 1976, McTeer became controversial -- feminism still being a relatively new social phenomenon at that time -- for keeping her own surname and attempting to maintain her own career.

In the 1988 federal election, McTeer ran as a Progressive Conservative candidate in Ottawa. However, she was not elected.

McTeer is a specialist in medical law, and chaired a government commission on new reproductive technologies in the early 1990s.

McTeer and Clark have one daughter, Catherine, who became a public figure in her own right when Clark returned to the leadership of the Progressive Conservatives in 1998.

See also: Spouses of the Prime Ministers of Canada.

Books by Maureen McTeer

• Parliament (1995) - translated into French as Le petit guide du système parlementaire canadien
• Tough Choices: Living and Dying in the 21st Century (1999) - translated into French as Vivre et mourir au 21e siècle: choix et enjeux
• In My Own Name (2003)
• Tangled Womb