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Each Friday at noon, politics lecturer Bryce Edwards is interviewing politicians in an ongoing series called “Political Chat”. Last week, Labour's North Dunedin candidate and electoral shoe in David Clark stepped up to the plate and talked about existential philosophy, social justice, and running in the nude.

David Clark was born in raised in Beachlands, South Auckland. His father owned a manufacturing business and Mum returned to high school and eventually medical school after raising her young family. Though his was not an overtly political family, his Christian upbringing installed in Clark a sense of social justice and the need to make markets work for people, and not vice versa. His self-described “liberal Christianity” led Clark to be be ordained as a Presbyterian minister after graduating from Otago.
 
While Clark found working in a local parish a massive buzz, he sought to immerse himself in the more corporate reality of the average Kiwi. After being told to finish his PhD before applying for serious jobs, Clark returned to the academic fold and completed a PhD in existential philosophy. Despite his fluent German and understanding of both Kierkegaard and Sartre, when asked to sum up what existential philosophy actually was, Clark um and ah'd before summing it up as basically Christianity without the god bit. Right, glad we cleared that up.
 
Clark then served in Treasury for nearly three years before working on the creation of NZ's Emissions Trading Scheme. Challenged by an intellectually disabled man about the veracity of climate change science, Clark humbly told the man that he had a very fair question before explaining that when 98% of scientists tell you something is happening, you should probably believe them.
 
After leaving government Clark took up his current post as Warden of Selwyn College, a step back, one might think, from the heady heights of the beehive, before realizing that the move was probably politically calculated; Dunedin North is a safe Labour seat and an easy ride into parliament (Clark is no carpetbagger, though, and he had been based in Dunedin for thirteen years before moving away). Interestingly, Clark's younger brother is also running for parliament in the upcoming election, leaving Critic looking forward to noogies, name calling and Charlie horses in the debating chamber should both make it through.
 
When provided with an opportunity by Critic to relieve himself of the guilt and humiliation of any secrets or scandals that he might be hiding, Clark meekly confessed to once winning the Tour of Southland nude running race in Invercargill (Critic wonders if it was a 'race' per se, or more some kind of fleeing scenario). Though he followed up his public nudity by confessing to having (OMG) smoked marijuana. Clark feels that growing one’s own marijuana should be, if it isn’t already, ignored by the police.
 
Despite his drug-crazed nudity, Clark is looking forward to the challenges of parliament, though he acknowledges that as a first term MP in a likely opposition role he will be a “big fish in a small pond”. Clichéd analogies aside, people seem to like Clark, even comparing him to NZ's holy of political holies, John Key. Though Clark may have preferred comparison to a more leftist political character, you can't complain too much about comparison with NZ's most popular politician.
 
When asked what would compel someone to get into the thankless world of politics, Clark responded that he was “getting into politics because he wants to make a change”. He believes that National is not doing enough to close the gap between rich and poor in NZ. And while he believes that “the best form of welfare for anyone is a job”, there needs to be a net for those who can’t support themselves.