Clark attended independent Roman Catholic schools: St. Jude’s Elementary and Notre Dame Secondary in East Vancouver. At Notre Dame, Clark was known as a small, fearless linebacker for the football team. Notre Dame is also where Clark was student council president and played the lead male role in The Sound of Music and later performed in South Pacific. Clark holds a bachelor's degree from Simon Fraser University and a master's degree from the University of British Columbia. Before entering politics, he worked in the labour movement.
Clark was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in the 1986 provincial election. He served as the Minister of Finance and Corporate Relations and then as the Minister of Employment and Investment in the government of Mike Harcourt. When Harcourt resigned as a result of the Bingogate scandal, Clark stood for and won the leadership of the BC NDP and therefore became BC's 31st premier. Clark called an election in 1996 in which his party narrowly held onto its majority. Although it received fewer votes across the province than the second-place BC Liberal Party, the NDP was able to hold on to power by winning all but eight seats in Vancouver. Clark largely continued the policies of the Harcourt government, particularly its implementation of the B.C. Benefits welfare reform package, similar to reforms carried out by Ralph Klein in Alberta and Mike Harris in Ontario. When the 1997 party convention adopted a motion condemning the reforms and calling for an increase in welfare rates, Clark responded, "No. We have a deficit."
Scandals
Fast ferry scandal
In an effort to revitalize a shipbuilding industry, Clark undertook the B.C. fast ferries initiative, which was designed to upgrade the existing BC Ferries fleet as well as jump start the shipbuilding industry in Vancouver. Although the ferries were eventually produced, the project had massive cost overruns and long delays, and the ferries were never able to function up to expectations. The ferries were later sold by the incoming Liberal government, for a fraction of their original price, to the American owned Washington Marine Group.
Casinogate
In March 1999, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police executed a search warrant and searched the Clark household. The media was tipped off about the raid and television news showed live, primetime coverage of the premier pacing inside his house while the search was conducted. Two weeks later the RCMP conducted a search of the Premier's Office. The subsequent investigation spawned intense coverage by the media. However, subsequent coverage also exposed numerous inaccuracies in the way the story was initially portrayed, with some critics alleging a media or RCMP conspiracy to smear him for ideological reasons. Clark resigned suddenly on the night of August 21, 1999, following allegations that he had accepted favours from Dimitrios Pilarinos in return for approving a casino application. He was later formally charged with committing breach of trust, a criminal offence. Conflict of interest commissioner H.A.D. Oliver concluded in 2001 that Clark had violated conflict of interest laws in British Columbia. However, Clark was acquitted of all criminal charges by the Supreme Court of British Columbia on August 29, 2002, with Justice Elizabeth Bennett ruling that while Clark had unwisely left himself open to a perception of unethical behaviour, there was no solid evidence that he had actually done anything illegal.
