PEI’s Candidate For Premier Is A Bully

This article was last updated on May 25, 2022

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When we reported UPEI was taking away disabled parking, Wade MacLauchlan tried to abuse and intimidate me

By Stephen Pate – The political blog Red Like Me named Liberal Wade MacLauchlan a bully. From personal experience I know Wade MacLauchlan is a bully and will try to get even with people who disagree with him.

When then-UPEI President Wade MacLauchlan read a negative story in 2008 about disability parking on UPEI campus,  MacLauchlan conspired with a student to get even. He encouraged the student to publish stories that spread lies about my personality, morals and ethics. Like a coward, MacLauchlan used a surrogate to get his revenge.

Of all the PEI candidates in the May 5th, 2015 election, Mr. MacLauchlan is the most likely to exert undue and perhaps illegal force to get his own way. The PEI Court found the defamatory blog violated my rights. MacLauchlan was not a named party in the action.

“Bullying is the use of force, threat, or coercion to abuse, intimidate, or aggressively dominate others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception, by the bully or by others, of an imbalance of social or physical power.” Wikipedia

In spring of 2008,  a secretary at UPEI approached me with a story about UPEI’s decision to ban all parking and driving on campus, except for commercial vehicles. That decision was made by Wade MacLauchlan in his attempt to create a more beautiful campus.

The downside was that all parking for people with disabilities was being removed and replaced with parking outside the perimeter, meaning students and employees with disabilities would have to walk further.

In researching the story UPEI kills accessible parking, I contacted then-UPEI President MacLauchlan and he refused to be interviewed. His only comment was that I was lying, distorting the facts.

As reported to me later, MacLauchlan encouraged a member of the UPEI accessibility committee to setup a blog in an attempt to discredit me and my reporting. This person, who cannot be named as part of a court order, was a paraplegic which was intended to give his defamatory statements credence. If one cripple says something nasty about another cripple it must be true right?

I tolerated the lies for awhile until one of the UPEI Deans told me MacLauchlan was behind the whole affair. I had angered Wade so much with the story about disability parking that he wanted to “take me out.” Unbelievable as that sounded, another member of the faculty confirmed I was on Wade MacLauchlan’s hate list and he wanted me off the story.

I was stunned but also somewhat amused. I had uncovered another Tricky Dick Nixon, the megalomaniac President of the United States who kept his own personal enemies list of journalists. When the hate blog got more virulent, I got a court order against the MacLauchlan-dupe to silence him.

It may be Wade MacLauchlan’s sense of entitlement or PEI’s version of Noblesse Oblige, his sense of personal style after decades of senior management positions or spring from some inner personal demon. Or perhaps they come  from sense of entitlement as the son of PEI’s richest business person.

All I can say for sure is that when confronted with a situation in which his decisions are questioned, Wade MacLauchlan will reach into a  bag of dirty tricks to squash his enemies, real or not.

I will admit that many students who have passed through UPEI hold a fatherly image of MacLauchlan and do not share my opinion.

He can be socially charming and like many men in power has the ability to mask his inner demons with social graces.

Wade MacLauchlan did not start a secret campaign to discredit CTV News or reporter Dan Viau who reported the same story, with more effect than mine. Like a bully, MacLauchlan picked on the weakest person who disagreed with him and tried to get even.

The look you see in the featured image (above from CBC) is the other side of Wade MacLauchlan, the Jekyll to his benevolent Mr. Hyde. There is a reason we don’t elect self-made millionaires or their children to public office. Their sense of entitlement and power are the opposite of what we expect in a democracy, that is fairness towards all and a respect for the democratic values of free expression and a free press.

Since I no longer work on PEI I can share this story with you, with my only risk of retribution from his Lordship that perhaps my healthcare will be compromised or he will sic one of his little minions on me again.  Such is the risk one faces trying to be a journalist on Prince Edward Island.

Redlikeme cites numerous incidents of Wade MacLauchlan in the role of bully. See  Just to connect some dots re claims by Wade MacLauchlan- The Real Bully ?

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By Stephen Pate, NJN Network