I'm sure people in Vancouver certainly consider the sky train a waste of money and wish they saved a few hundred million by having it at grade.
According to this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CTrain...APTA-Q1-2015-3 the daily ridership in Calgary is 330k daily passengers, whereas ridership in Vancouver is 390k daily. With a massive expansion upcoming, you could realistically expect Calgary's daily ridership to match or surpass Vancouver's.
Why sell Calgary short and build the expansion at grade? Didn't they learn their lesson from the disaster that is 36th street NE and Macleod trail in the south? Cars belong on the surface, light rail belongs below or above.