Sarah Stewart-Clark running for P.E.I. PC leadership

A fourth candidate has officially entered the race to lead P.E.I.'s Progressive Conservative Party. 

Sarah Stewart-Clark announced her bid for the leadership on Monday. 

"My campaign is really to be ensuring that our province is providing services in a really inclusive and fair manner, to ensure that all citizens of Prince Edward Island have the services that they require to lead healthy and happy lives," Stewart-Clark told Louise Martin in an interview on CBC News: Compass. 

Stewart-Clark has already been nominated as the PC candidate for District 9, Charlottetown-Hillsborough Park, for the next provincial election.

'We need to do better' 

Stewart-Clark is a professor at Dalhousie University's Faculty of Agriculture — a position from which she says she will take a leave. The campus is located in Truro, N.S., but she says her primary residence is on P.E.I., as she works remotely. 

There are barriers that exist that are visible to me as a woman that the party just hasn't been aware of.— Sarah Stewart-Clark

Over the last several years she has been involved in advocacy, largely focused on improving access to mental health services on the Island. 

She said the lessons she has learned from the many Islanders she has met with in recent years form a key part of her campaign. 

"I overwhelmingly have a message from Islanders saying we need to do better — we are being failed by the systems we believed would be there to support us when our family goes through a crisis or a job loss."

And because of her work in fishery and agriculture science, she said she is concerned about how primary industries will adapt in the face of climate change. 

"We rely on these industries for our rural communities, and I'm concerned that we're not taking that seriously," she said.

"We need to ensure that our primary resource industries are resilient in the face of the coming changes that we will see in our oceans and on our land."

Building a more inclusive party 

Stewart-Clark said she was drawn to the PC Party because she has seen members advocate for victims of sexual violence and low-income Islanders. However, she does think the party is "not as inclusive as it could be." 

"That's not intentional from the party that I see, but there are barriers that exist that are visible to me as a woman that the party just hasn't been aware of," Stewart-Clark said. 

She said there are differences between the P.E.I. PC Party and other conservative parties in Canada, and she wants Islanders to see that. 

"For me, it's ensuring that more citizens of our province understand that this is a party that they would be welcome in."

Leadership convention in February

Stewart-Clark joins three other candidates in the race to lead the PC Party. Allan Dale, Dennis King and Shawn Driscoll have all announced their plans to run.

The party's leadership convention is scheduled for Feb. 9. 

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