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First, he actually showed up for the forum put on by the Students’ Association of Mount Royal University. Two of the other candidates did not — the Liberal party’s Robin MacIntosh was apparently in Toronto on a business trip and was replaced by that party’s candidate for Calgary-Currie, Josh Codd, who did an admirable job. The UCP’s Doug Schweitzer, who ran for the leadership of the UCP and placed a distant third, put out a statement saying he’s looking forward to debate the other candidates on April 11 at Elbow Park School, but didn’t provide any valid excuse as to why he wasn’t there. So, it was really just Clark and the NDP’s Janet Eremenko who were Calgary-Elbow candidates.

Clark’s answers to all questions were thoughtful, detailed and articulate. Eremenko sounded like a brochure and kept trying to convince the small crowd that this riding will go the way of the rest of the province — as a two-horse race between the NDP and the UCP. But the two-way race in Calgary-Elbow, pointed out Clark, will be between him and Schweitzer. That’s undoubtedly the case.

Clark is one of those rare opposition politicians who actually knows every government file he talks about with incredible detail. Ask him about electricity and prepare to be energized by a passionate discussion about balancing pools, power purchase agreements and the like.

Indeed, Clark says if he had his way, he would hold a royal commission into the Alberta “NDP government’s single biggest scandal” — its meddling with Alberta’s electricity system that led to the en-masse resignation of all but one member from the electricity balancing pool and has cost Alberta taxpayers $2 billion while getting nothing in return.