Advocacy group calls PC leader's absence from P.E.I. diversity forum 'unfortunate'

An organization that co-hosted a forum for P.E.I. political leaders to talk about race and immigration issues on Wednesday night says it's disappointed the leader of the Progressive Conservatives didn't show up.

Dennis King was the only leader among the Island's four major parties who missed the event.

It was co-hosted by BIPOC USHR (which stands for Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour United for Strength, Home, Relationship) and the Black Cultural Society with less than a week to go before the April 3 provincial election.

While the forum was taking place in Charlottetown, King was attending the wake of Alberton Mayor David Gordon, who died Saturday at the age of 61. Gordon had been diagnosed with liver disease in 2022. 

Before the evening visitation, the party says, King had been participating in a number of other campaign events in West Prince.

BIPOC USHR executive director Sobia Ali-Faisal, who moderated the forum, said it's "unfortunate" King missed out on an opportunity to engage with P.E.I.'s diverse community.

"We can always engage with him in another time to find out… what he's thinking about in terms of race and immigration. But I think it would have been nice for him to see all the people that were there," she said of the more than 100 attendees.

"I'm hoping we get a chance in the future to really… have that conversation with him. But I think it would have been great for him to have been there, just for his own benefit."

Organizers wouldn't accept substitute, PCs say

The Progressive Conservatives said in a statement the party offered Tim Keizer, their nominee in District 12, to represent them in the forum instead of King, something other parties have done for similar events during the 2023 campaign.

"All other forums and debate requests provided opportunities for political parties to send candidates when the leader was unable to attend. For example, Steven Myers [for the PCs] attended the debate on environment, Joe Byrne [for the NDP] attended the debate on agriculture," the statement said.

The Progressive Conservatives said the forum's organizers would not accept a different representative, adding that while they respected that decision, the party was unable to accommodate the request.

Ali-Faisal defended the decision to not let Keizer substitute for King, saying it's the leader who "sets the tone" for the parties, and has a lot more to say than any individual candidate who might not end up getting elected.

"We really need to know what they're thinking about in terms of race and immigration, because then we can actually have some sort of insight into where the party itself might land on those issues," she said.

Previous comments under scrutiny

NDP Leader Michelle Neill agrees the PCs missed an important opportunity.

"Just learning from the group that was there... was extremely valuable to me as a leader," she said. "The other two leaders who were in attendance said the same thing. So I think that Dennis may have missed out on an opportunity to really learn and listen."

Green Leader Peter Bevan-Baker said people were "visibly upset" King didn't show up.

"I think folks were particularly upset… because of some remarks that the premier has made himself and some of the attitudes that have been reflected by a couple of his candidates on social media. So the absence was definitely noted," Bevan-Baker said. 

District 17 PC candidate Donalda Docherty has drawn some criticism about her past social media posts, some of which Ali-Faisal has previously said perpetuate Islamophobia.

The candidate has said the problematic posts she shared aren't "consistent with her views." 

King has also had to defend himself in this campaign after a clip in which he discussed transgender issues with an unidentified voter was released on social media.

"My whole point, I guess, would continue to be that we have to be able, in the society that we live in, to have a conversation," King told CBC News last week.

"Hate and homophobia and discrimination [have] no place in the world, but we have to be able to have a conversation with everybody about these difficult transitional issues."

Party posts responses online

On Thursday, the Progressive Conservatives posted answers to all the questions the forum organizers had provided to them.

But Gord McNeilly, the Liberal candidate for District 14, said King should have submitted answers in written form in time for them to be read out during the forum.

"You needed to have some people there and you needed to be prepared for that. We've had those questions for two and half weeks," he said.