Prince Albert candidate Kelly Day poses with People's Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier during his visit to the city Aug.1 (Michael Joel-Hansen/paNOW Staff) 

By Glenn Hicks

murky messages

P.A. candidate speaks to Bernier billboard controversy

Aug 28, 2019 | 2:33 PM

The Prince Albert candidate for the federal People’s Party of Canada (PPC) calls the controversial messaging on the billboards that featured the face of leader Maxime Bernier ‘bold.’ But Kelly Day adds it’s a positive that it has sparked a wider conversation on immigration and notes her party is prepared to tackle political correctness and discuss what she says Canadians want to talk about.

The signs with the message, ‘Say NO to Mass Immigration’, were paid for by a third party advertiser, not the official campaign, although Bernier said he did not disagree with the messaging. They began going up around the country late last week but were then hastily removed by the billboard owners, Pattison Outdoor Advertising, after a public backlash over concerns they promoted anti-immigrant rhetoric.

“I tend to take a gentle approach on things and I [initially] found the [billboards] quite bold,” Day told paNOW. “But as I started talking to people I realized it was opening a very important discussion.”

She said Canadians wanted to have the conversation about “the difference between mass migration and a more orderly immigration process.” One of the PPC’s platform items is to curtail immigration to between 100,000 and 150,000 per year. They regard the current levels of up to 350,000 as too high.

The billboards’ message opposing mass immigration caused a public backlash prompting the outdoor advertising company to have the signs brought down. (The Canadian Press)

GST Holiday

Federal government's two-month GST holiday begins

13h ago

Imminent need

Council set to discuss possible location for homeless shelter on 15th Street

19h ago

International Spotlight

P.A.'s Howe one of 4 Sask. born players named to Canada's World Junior roster

Dec 13, 2024

Bernier has said the billboards were only controversial for “the totalitarian leftist mob,” and Day pointed to what she called “a trend where certain small amounts of people, generally activists, are the loudest and therefore get the attention.”

She said companies often then bow down to those pressures rather than face criticism or be shamed on a personal level.

“What we see now is a slippery slope on how quickly things can be shut down based on hurt feelings or offence that is taken, and that’s a very subjective thing …that becomes extremely murky. We speak out against political correctness in the PPC. It really does feel like people now and businesses are walking on eggshells.”

Day insisted her party was not anti-immigration.

“That’s slander [to say so]; that’s something that wasn’t on the sign in the first place and is certainly not something we stand for,” she said.

Liberal MP for Regina Ralph Goodale said earlier this week the billboards were distasteful and it was a “very hopeful sign that when Canadians saw them they said ‘No, that’s not us.’”

paNOW asked Day if she had a message for the new immigrant families who arrive in Prince Albert each year, some of whom may have been uncomfortable about the billboard’s messaging.

“I in fact have new immigrants on my volunteer team so this is something I am extremely sensitive to,” she said. “I don’t want anyone to feel unwelcome in this country. When you’re Canadian you’re Canadian and I’m just glad to have people that want to come here, who recognize how great Canada is.”

—

With files from The Canadian Press and CKOM

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow