Simon McClark

Simon Tobias McClark (born May 19, 1974) is a Snowinn politician and journalist who is serving as President of the United Provinces since 2015. Prior to being elected President he served as a Liberal Member of Parliament, first elected in 2004.

Simon McClark was born in a lower middle class family in Winsburg in 1974. Early in his life he displayed an interest in politics and he studied journalism in college, graduating with a master's degree. McClark was very active in the Snowinn Civil War in his opposition to the nationalist government, and at age 25 he got to meet the very leader of the fight, Geronimo Stanling, who early on tried to encourage McClark to seek political office after the war. McClark was hired several years later, in 2000, to serve as a close adviser to Geronimo Stanling, and in 2004 launched a successful bid to get elected as Member of Parliament. He belonged to the center-leftist wing of the Liberal Party, in contrast to the rightist, conservative wing of Geronimo Stanling, although he retained a close friendship with the new president.

McClark, a rising star in the Liberal Party, launched a presidential bid in 2007 to challenge the incumbent President Stanling, but McClark's campaign failed to gain any traction and he was decisively defeated. He continued building up his reputation in the shadows, skipped the 2011 presidential election and finally ran once again 2015 when the country was in the midst of a crisis following the peaceful overthrow of Robert Smith. McClark won a landslide victory and was therefore elected President of the United Provinces.

Simon McClark presided over an era of unprecedented economic growth, with living standards building to levels never seen before and unemployment at record lows, and the GDP at a record high. He continued developing the project of the Western Union started under President Smith, he restored Snowiny's reputation worldwide and publicly apologized for war crimes committed in the Bow Tie War, he restored the faith of Snowinians into the political system, restructured the country into a federal administrative system, pushed Acadia to democratize during the Achadia Crisis, formed historically close relations with his country's friendly rivals in Shops Island and cemented the country's status as a great power by getting it a spot on the UAN Security Council. McClark's approval ratings, although generally rather low during his first term, have stabilized following his reelection win and McClark was voted in 2019 as the most popular and greatest figure in Snowinian history behind only Stanling thanks to the economic growth and progress the country underwent under his presidency.

Background
He was born on the 19th of May, 1974, to Dragan McClark and Rosa Garcia McClark in West Winsburg Hospital, in the then Republic of Snowiny. He was discriminated by his childhood friends for having different interests than them. He has 2 fourteen-year-old sons, Janko and Tadija McClark. During his adult life, he campaigned against the dictatorship and even met former president Henry Horatio in 1997, during Francisco Ferinco's regime. He hasn't, however, personally fought against the regime. In 1995 he was arrested for criticizing the regime, and released in 1996 as the rebellion began. He went to exile in Muscovgrad, Rusca and didn't return until 2003, when he celebrated victory for the Republicans along with president Geronimo Stanling, vice president Robert Smith, secretary of state Jane Horrace, and many other government members.

2007 Presidential Election
In 2006, he announced he will campaign for the position of president of the United Provinces in 2007 as an independent. Incumbent president Geronimo Stanling announced he will run for a second term. McClark campaigned ruthlessly and won lots of liberal voters in the eastern and northern parts of the country. The rural parts of the country destroyed his campaign, however, in some places in central Snowiny with Stanling polling as high as 86% and McClark 9%.

He nominated Ashley Gablings for his running mate a few weeks before the election. He lost the 2007 presidential election to the McClark-Smith ticket by around 120,000 votes. He refused to campaign in the 2011 Presidential Election against the Smith-Waltera ticket.

2015 Presidential Election
In July 2015, the country was in political turmoil; the country was very unhappy because Smith randomly instated a monarchy in the country and proclaimed himself king. They were also unhappy with the fact that he is killing the economy of the country and getting involved in various overseas wars. Smith resigned in July that month and presidential elections were to take place on August 1st, 2015. McClark announced he will campaign for president and picked Ashley Gablings for vice president. He won 57% to 42% against vice president Jerry Waltera, and became the first president of the United Provinces.

Early First Term of the McClark Presidency
McClark became the first president of a new country, the United Provinces. At first it was extremely unstable as it just saw a peaceful revolt that overthrew Robert Smith and was at war on terrorists worldwide. McClark quickly outlined his National Salvation Plan which included increasing wages, increasing the size of the federal government, restricting gun control, fighting climate change and giving amnesty to refugees. The most controversial part of the plan is the immigration plan as the majority of the population (58% according to polls) were opposed to giving amnesty to illegal immigrants. This led to the rise of far right parties in 2016, which could influence UP politics in the years to come.

McClark's plan successfully brought down unemployment, which before August 1st, 2015 was 7.1% and after August 1st, 2016 was at 4.8%. He increased economic growth to up to 3.8% (the 2015 all year low was 0.76% in March while the all year high was 3.11% in December) by August 2016.

His foreign policy was, unlike Smith's, very passive and cooperative with other nations. Smith, in contrast to McClark, was very politically incorrect and used very simple words at international summits and other meetings. McClark forged healthy relations with Tropicalis, Acadia and many other nations. His government publicly supported the liberation of Yow, the first and only country in Antarctica to do so, and accuses Shops and other Axle nations of war crimes in Yow.

The most major event of his presidency was the January Crisis in which East Pengolia shot down a UP plane. At first, McClark took an aggressive approach, but a few days later tensions calmed down and by Feburary 2016 the events of a month ago were nearly forgotten as the UP and EP managed to work it out between themselves. The biggest success of his presidency is also regarded, quite ironically, the UP's lifting of sanctions against EP and the subsequent treaty of cooperation signed in Fishwow.

This decision had mixed reactions; the most of the population at home in Snowiny supporting it, while anti communists worldwide staged protests. The government of Lavender condemned the lifting of sanctions, accusing McClark of "being a friend of communism". Tens of thousands of Shoppers went on the streets in Vonkouver to protest the treaty, waving signs such as "MCCLARK: FRIEND OF A BABY KILLER", "DOWN WITH MCCLARK DOWN WITH COMMUNISM" and "MCCLARK THE MURDERER", as well as waving pictures of McClark with the caption "OBEY" (sort of like this).

Nevertheless, McClark's administration proved to be very successful with foreign and domestic policy. He has, however, had several diplomatic incidents, the most notable one when he secretly told his secretary of state on the phone that Margatian president Frederick Mueller "shouldn't be president cause he is Nexonan scum". After the phone call was leaked, McClark apologized for his comments and said he never should have said them.

However, in June 2017, a parliamentary election was called by McClark and Prime Minister Lena Sanders. The election took place on 1 July and it resulted in a stunning debacle for the Liberal Party. The Prime Minister Lena Sanders resigned, two new parties entered Parliament, problems started looming in Penland and everything got uglier. McClark faced a political crisis as he got calls to resign and faced pressure to appoint a Conservative Prime Minister.

Late First Term of the McClark Presidency
At first a highly popular president, his popularity declined throughout the course of his term and in 2017 leached record low levels. This was not usual - both Geronimo Stanling and Robert Smith had such approval patterns: both had outstanding approval in their early days that sank far low in their later days. The later part of McClark's first term was also marked by McClark's shift right-wards, possibly to fit into a changing political environment as the right-wing in the country became stronger once again after its near obliteration in the 1990s. In 2018, after the previous year's parliamentary elections and constitutional reforms, his party rebranded itself into the Liberal Democratic Party and adopted a much more right-wing platform, in contrast to the previous slightly left-wing platform.

McClark's approval stabilized in 2018 and approval of President McClark would start hanging around 44% to 48%. This was widely attributed to McClark's increased maturity and his confessions that major mistakes were made in the past. He also finally cemented his tone regarding Acadia, which at times was either 'condemn Acadia for its anti-democratic crusade' or 'we need to back Acadia as they are our natural allies' - he said that he does not like Acadia's drift away from democracy under president Brant Esser, but expressed his need for closer cooperation with Acadia, and pondered if the United Provinces could possibly influence Acadian government politics to be less radical, more pro-democratic and less confrontational with the United States of Antarctica.

In the spring of 2018, the Long Friday Agreement was signed between the United Provinces government and the Penland rebels, ending the war in Penland and introducing peace to a region that has been extremely unstable for over thirty years. This was regarded as the greatest accomplishment in the entire McClark presidency, and a majority of citizens (78%) has expressed their approval of the Long Friday Agreement.

In late 2018 he started assembling his campaign team for the 2019 presidential elections. He is expected to announce his bid for a second term this winter, possibly as early as December.

Personality
Simon McClark has a pretty abrasive personality. He generally has little regard for other people's opinions and feelings, and that is the reason he divorced 7 times. He has complicated relations with his current wife, Evelyn Amy Davis-McClark, whom he married in 2017 after being divorced for a year. All 7 times he divorced because of his general selfishness and lack of concern for others, and he generally doesn't see much in people other than objects he could exploit for his gain, especially women, as he is notorious for his constant scandals and gossips. His love life brought him a significant defeat to Geronimo Stanling in the 2007 presidential election, same year when he divorced with his then-wife Marla Taylor.

He is also known to be aggressive and dominant, and constantly puts himself as the 'alpha male'. He, however, tries to make others feel comfortable and welcome and doesn't hesitate to help but always refuses to help those he dislikes even when it can benefit him personally. In 2007 McClark would have likely entered second round with Stanling and come close to victory had he not been known for the brutal treatment he gave to his wives and lovers and he was often consumed by lust which constantly carried him out of control. He was also damaged by a could-have-been-fatal car incident he had in 2004, leading to people believing he is a maniac and cannot even be trusted with 'driving his kids to a store'. He is very irresponsible indeed and his irresponsibility has been pointed out many times.

Member of Parliament
He was a Liberal Member of Parliament in Snowiny from 2004 to 2015, when he was elected President. He proposed the Domestic Privacy Act in 2005, protecting the privacy of citizens, which was rejected by most of other Liberals and the entire Conservative Party. He also proposed a constitutional amendment enshrining gun rights in the Constitution in 2013, which failed to win 2/3rds of all votes required (it won 89 votes for versus 57 votes against and 4 abstain). His record included voting for war against Puffalia, voting for increased military spending, voting for restricting gun control and voting for better access to healthcare and education.

President
He was elected President of the United Provinces in 2015. He immediately got to work on reforming the system, introducing a federal republic, lowering taxes on the poor and the middle classes and working towards greater access to gun rights. He had to deal with East Pengolia and Acadia many times during his administration and has to work on appeasing a divided country at home. He won a second term in 2019 just barely against far-right candidate Monica Le Ben. 2 years earlier, his party suffered big defeats at parliamentary elections at which the Liberal Party lost 2 seats. He is set to hold a State of the Union speech on 10 July 2017 before the Parliament, where he will talk about his foreign and domestic policy agenda and more.

Trivia

 * He is the current president of the United Provinces.
 * Lavender considers him to be salty, but still more tolerable than Robert Smith.
 * President Mueller praised him for having the courage to speak out against anyone, even though McClark had allegedly made a statement about how Mueller (who is a Nexonan) shouldn't be elected President (which was condemned as racist by most Margatians). Even then, the Margatian government thinks that he's better than the last leader who proclaimed monarchy.
 * A list of all foreign visits he made during his presidency can be found here.