INUVIK - Former prime minister Joe Clark visited Inuvik for the first time somewhere between 1972 and 1974, less than 20 years after the town was first formed.

During that time, he was part of the opposition in a minority parliament and his party, the Progressive Conservatives, and the NDP could control the agendas of the parliamentary committees. He and other members of the Indian and Northern Affairs committee wanted to travel North. So Clark, his wife and 18 other parliamentarians.

"In my mind's eye view of it then, it was much more isolated than now, but the people there didn't act isolated," Clark said in an interview with the Inuvik Drum. "The people, by and large, live there by choice and they're making the most of it."

The situation hasn't changed that much after all. Although Inuvik still remains fairly remote, it has still drawn more than 400 participants to this year's Inuvik Petroleum Show, held next week from June 13 to 15. Clark will be one of two keynote speakers at the event, alongside Maclean's editor Andrew Coyne.

Since that first trip, Clark has travelled back to Inuvik a few times, the last being with an Aboriginal oil company in the nineties. He has continued to have an interest in the North, specifically the opportunity for development there. His interest however, spans back even farther than his parliamentary days.

"I was coming out of high school when Diefenbaker was talking about the North and I was always interested in the sense of openness and aspiration there," Clark said. "I grew up in the (Alberta) foothills and listened to people talk about land with no fences, but it's especially like that in the North."

Clark, who now lives in Ottawa, thinks the North still maintains a sense of mystery, but that it won't have an impact on economic development and exploration. The mystery holds more potential for the lack of knowledge.

"There's optimism about the prospects of the North, but not a lot of real knowledge," Clark said. "There are global factors, considering the speed of development and natural resources and all of the issues will become Northern as that interest expands."

Questions about development, resource extraction and the impact on the environment does have potential to raise a number of conflicts, Clark said. As temperatures warm and the potential for development increases, these conflicts will come more to the forefront.

"It's going to be interesting," Clark said. "The prospects and attitudes have had a positive change on where we go from here."

Clark will speak on June 15 for participants in the conference. Other speakers include chair and chief executive officer of the National Energy Board, a panel of industry representatives on the oil and gas market conditions, and energy advisors of Ziff Energy speaking on current market conditions.

"I'm going to make my presentation as interesting as possible, but I'm looking forward to listening to the other speakers," Clark said. "I'm simply excited to get back and see again a region and be a part of the region, having visited it off and on for 40 years."

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