Clyde Jackman was born in Grole, Hermitage Bay to Clyde and Theresa (Cribb) Jackman and is the eldest of 10 children. His family resettled to Marystown in 1968. Clyde has resided in Baine Harbour for the past 29 years where he and his wife Elizabeth (Kilfoy) raised their five children Mary, Colin, Owen, Darren, and Byron. Clyde completed his high school years at Pearce Regional High School and went on to complete a Bachelor of Arts and Education from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. In 1993, he received a Master's of Education from Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Clyde has worked in education for 27 years. His first two years of teaching took him to Cartwright, Labrador. He then returned to the Burin Peninsula and worked as a teaching principal at St. Matthew's Elementary, Boat Harbour West, and as principal at Jacques Fontaine All-Grade School, Jacques Fontaine.

Clyde has served as a volunteer at both the local and provincial levels. He has been a member of the Board of Directors for the T. J. Macdonald Youth Group Home and, for 21 years, he worked as a volunteer firefighter. He has held several positions within his local church community and, for a period of time, he and his family provided foster care support. Clyde is an avid outdoors person. He particularly enjoys kayaking and canoeing. He has fished alongside trawlermen and inshore fishermen and he has a deep interest in the future of rural Newfoundland and Labrador. He was sworn in as the Member for Burin - Placentia West on November 12, 2003. He was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary for the Department of Education in June 2005. He was sworn in as Minister of Environment and Conservation on March 14, 2006.

On October 30, 2007, he was appointed Minister of Tourism, Culture and Recreation.