One of the Progressive Labour Party's two white candidates last night said if more whites joined the party they could end Bermuda's race problem.

Southampton East Central candidate Zane DeSilva told a public meeting that whites should make more of an effort to join black clubs — and could "get rid of the Big Conversation" by signing up to the PLP.

"Race is a hot topic at the moment, especially on the doorsteps, especially in white homes," Mr. DeSilva told a meeting for Constituents 28 to 31 in Port Royal Primary School, Southampton.

"People say: 'Why do you have to go back to the past? Why don't the PLP let it go?'

"I believe that as white people we must, must, recognise that there are injustices in the past that haunt us today, not for 30 years but for 150 years.

"Black people join white places, clubs, churches. The whites have to say: 'Let me go and join my brothers and sisters in black churches, let me go into the black clubs.'

"If we are serious about that, I think that if white people would forget for a moment all the past... what they have to do is join the PLP. Join the PLP.

"I'm so proud to be a part of the PLP. Whites, you know what, join the PLP. You will find you are welcomed with open arms. If all the whites in Bermuda joined the PLP we wouldn't have a race problem. You want to get rid of the Big Conversation? Join the PLP."

Fellow PLP candidates George Scott, Stanley Lowe and Marc Bean also spoke at the meeting.

Southampton East candidate Mr. Lowe said: "From my observation over the last nine and a half years, I have seen the PLP Government perform.

"We haven't been perfect, mistakes have been made, but we have been a good PLP Government."

Warwick West candidate Mr. Scott said education and affordable housing were key issues people had raised while he was canvassing, and he added that a better Police presence would reduce crime.

Southampton West Central candidate Mr. Bean said the Opposition United Bermuda Party had a "neo-fascist agenda".

"If they have the opportunity they will lock all of us up. It's true," he said.

He said many of his friends had been incarcerated and had since "turned a page in their life".

But he said it was better to invest in people than to spend money incarcerating them.