Political parties banned from Pride Parade: What happened in Week 3 of P.E.I.'s campaign

Has the P.E.I. election started to go off the rails? 

Last week was full of campaign promises, but this week there was controversy.

On Monday, PC Leader Dennis King defended his record on protecting transgender rights after audio was released of him saying "you don't gotta drive everything down everybody's throat" when asked about trans issues.

He later apologized, but Pride P.E.I. effectively banned all politicians from taking part in the Island's annual Pride Parade this summer.

"We feel there is no other choice but to suspend the entry of all provincial political parties until commitments are made," Pride P.E.I. said in a statement. "And followed up on with real meaningful action once the legislature reconvenes following the election."

The PCs also found themselves in more hot water over messages on social media from candidate Donalda Docherty.

The party confirmed that Docherty shared an article in 2018 calling for the niqab and burka to be banned in public places. On Twitter, one of her accounts (which has been deleted) retweeted posts that questioned the validity of climate change and claimed COVID-19 is a global conspiracy. 

One retweeted message compared the government response in Canada to COVID-19 to Nazi Germany's persecution of Jewish people during the Holocaust. Docherty also shared posts by former NHLer Theo Fleury claiming the pandemic was a deliberate plan to depopulate the world.

CBC News asked for an interview with Docherty but she declined, and issued a statement instead.

"I am fully vaccinated myself and appreciate the work done by government to ensure vaccines and testing were accessible to all Islanders," she said in an emailed statement. 

"I of course believe climate change is real and am proud to run as part of a team that is leading the country in working towards net-zero emissions."

Also in the news this week

The Greens, Liberals and PCs finally released their party platforms this week. The NDP were first to do so in this election, but the other parties were content holding announcement after announcement before they dropped their full platform.

That's a clear strategy parties are taking in the election. They didn't invent it, though. 

After candidates locked in last week, we crunched the numbers on the number of women running in this election and it's way up. Fifty-two of the 119 candidates in this election are women, or 44 per cent. In comparison, 33 per cent of the candidates in the 2019 election were women (35 of 109 candidates) and 29.5 per cent in the 2015 provincial election (31 of 105).

Sweta Daboo, the executive director of the P.E.I. Coalition for Women in Government, said it's a promising rise but the parties need to focus on seeing those women elected too. 

There were some mail-in ballot errors that have since been corrected for District 25: O'Leary-Inverness and District 22: Summerside-South Drive.

Mistakes were made in 19 ballots sent out for District 25 and 43 ballots for District 22: Summerside-South Drive.

P.E.I.'s Chief Electoral Officer Tim Garrity said Election's P.E.I. quickly reordered ballots and contacted "every single person who had applied for the mail-in ballot.

"It was a very small number and we did catch this prior to the advance polling happening Saturday," he said. "We're very glad for that."

A grassroots land-protection group is calling on the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission to investigate the ownership of land in the Kings County area of Prince Edward Island.

More than 200 people attended a public forum in Montague on last Saturday, organized by the Coalition for the Protection of P.E.I. Lands. The meeting focused mainly on land owned by two Buddhist monasteries in Kings County, as well as land owned by corporations or individuals that coalition organizers believe to be affiliated with the Buddhist movement on P.E.I.

"This is a big issue within Three Rivers," one of the speakers at the meeting said. "A lot of people have been waking up to the actual mass of purchases of large corporations in the Three Rivers area or even just Eastern P.E.I."

A spokesman for Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society monks living communally in Kings County say the monks are dismayed and alarmed by what they say is rumour and misinformation.

"It's not true that they are using shell companies to buy up land in Kings County," said Xing Chang, a monk who identifies himself in English as Venerable Dan.

"Some people have solidified a conclusion about us... There's clearly a disconnect."

Also this week, UPEI's Faculty Association went on strike and leaders weighed in on whether they'd issue back-to-work orders if elected.

Green Leader Peter Bevan-Baker and NDP Leader Michelle Neill spoke out firmly against back-to-work legislation. "Absolutely, we would not legislate these people back to work," said Bevan-Baker said. Neill added: "As government, I don't believe we should directly interfere with collective bargaining."

King didn't rule that out as a possibility, if his party's re-elected and faculty are still on strike come April 3. "I think that's always a last resort," he said. "It wouldn't be my first initiative, obviously." 

Liberal Leader Sharon Cameron said the party would "look at all elements" and "want to avoid any of those kinds of severe actions and make sure the discussion continues."

Final week of the campaign coming up

There was another leaders' debate this week. This time it was hosted by the Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Charlottetown Inc. 

The leaders answered questions on the issues facing local industries left hurting over the last few years due to pandemic shutdowns, labour shortages, high inflation and the aftermath of post-tropical storm Fiona. It was livestreamed on Facebook in case you missed it. 

Coming up Monday is the CBC P.E.I. Leaders' Debate. You can watch that right here on the website, on Facebook, TV, CBC Gem and 96.1 FM.

In the lead-up to the debate we've profiled all four leaders.

And, as always, we have our promise tracker and party comparison tool.

Next week marks the final full week of the election campaign. The first advance poll is Saturday, March 25. There's another on Monday, March 27, and one more on March 31.

For more on what you need to know, check out our voter information story.

The vote is April 3.