Dennis King says PC plan is about action after 4 years coping with global crises

This is the third in a series of profiles of P.E.I. provincial party leaders this week, heading into advance polls that start March 25. Regular voting day is April 3. 

When Progressive Conservative Leader Dennis King looks back at who he was during the 2019 election campaign, with his party on the eve of forming a minority government on Prince Edward Island, he can't recognize himself.

Waiting for him on the other side of that election were four of the most tumultuous years the world had ever seen.

"We'd been through so much," he told CBC News this week.

"That was probably a rather naive person getting into government with some ideas to change how we were going to operate government, without knowing what's on the horizon."

On the horizon? Global issues that didn't just send ripples to P.E.I.; they generated tidal waves. 

Just a few: A pandemic and a health-care system in crisis; worldwide economic collapse and record inflation; the Russian invasion of Ukraine inciting trade disruption; rising levels of homelessness and poverty; social unrest and anti-racism protests; the closure of the U.S. border to P.E.I. potatoes; two calamitous tropical storms; and rampant environmental destruction. 

"No government in history has operated under the intense pressures that we have, and faced the challenges that we've had," King said. "I think we've done a great job in managing the province."

While he was a first-time party leader and premier in 2019, King had already spent many years in the political realm.

He hails from Georgetown and was a journalist for the Eastern Graphic, Island Farmer and Atlantic Fish Farming. He later joined the provincial government in a communications role, and made the leap to become the director of communications under then-premier Pat Binns. 

King then worked for the Mi'kmaq Confederacy and P.E.I. Seafood Processors Association. Before long he was launching his own communications business and working with Atlantic Canadian public relations firm M5.

Before joining the PC leadership race, he spent time as a performer, calling himself a storyteller and comedian. (When he became leader, tweets from his time as a comedian were criticized for "misogynistic language." King said they were "obviously in poor taste" and apologized.) 

In April 2019, he led the Progressive Conservatives to power for the first time since 2007 — taking down the Wade MacLauchlan-led Liberals and ushering a minority government into the legislature.

"Welcome to a new era in Island politics," King said on the night of his victory.