Clarkson's later work focused mainly on two areas: the evolution of North America as a continental state, reinstitutionalized by the North American Free Trade Agreement and two decades of neoconservatism; and the impact of globalization and trade liberalization on the Canadian state. His publications on these themes include Uncle Sam and Us: Globalization, Neoconservatism and the Canadian State, published in 2002; and Global Governance and the Semi-peripheral State: The WTO and NAFTA as Canada's External Constitution in Governing under Stress: Middle Powers and the Challenge of Globalization". Clarkson had taught and written on Canadian foreign policy and federal party politics. Following an unsuccessful campaign as Liberal candidate for the mayoralty of Toronto in 1969, Clarkson was active in the Liberal Party for six years. After Pierre Trudeau’s retirement from politics in 1984, Clarkson spent a decade co-authoring the book, Trudeau and Our Times, with his wife Christina McCall, which won the Governor General's Award for non-fiction. Clarkson's knowledge and experience in Canadian politics led to the commissioning of a history of federal election campaigns in Canada from 1974 onward. These essays were the basis of his 2005 book, The Big Red Machine: How the Liberal Party Dominates Canadian Politics''. Clarkson was renowned for his teaching, receiving many teaching awards in his tenure at the University of Toronto. He was a great encourager of “the engaged” life, taking his students on extra-curricular field studies to Washington, D.C. and Mexico, and urging them to resist the world around them if they felt so inclined. Clarkson was a frequent commentator of Canadian politics, in both English and French. A lover of languages, he was also proficient in Spanish, German, Russian and Italian. Clarkson earned a B.A. from the University of Toronto, an M.A. from New College, Oxford, and a D. de Rech. from the University of Paris. He was a Senior Fellow at Massey College, a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ontario and, in 2004, was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2010, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada. Clarkson's first wife was then broadcaster and future Governor General of CanadaAdrienne Clarkson with whom he had two daughters, Kyra and Blaise. His second wife was the late political writer Christina McCall. McCall adopted his two daughters, and he adopted her daughter Ashley. Clarkson died in Germany of pneumonia which had developed into sepsis, while on a research trip with his students. He is survived by wife Nora Born, whom he married in 2014.
