PAULA COX:

The Big Conversation — a hallmark of Premier Ewart Brown's regime — would "morph" under a Paula Cox administration.

Ms Cox has declared her desire to take the shouting out of race discussions and she says the Bermuda Race Relations Initiative "will have a different focus from what we have now".

"The Big Conversation has been more public discourse. I think it's gotten the issue on the radar screen. It may have made people initially wonder, but I think it's got the issue on the main forum," she said.

"In Bermuda, we talk in sidebars: in meetings we don't say what we really think. We go into the corner or sidelines to speak."

But she believes the past few years have been like a teenage period for the Progressive Labour Party Government.

"Now as a fourth term we have got to deepen and see real change and reform that doesn't necessarily have to be signposted with exclamation marks," she said.

"It has to happen as opposed to having the discussion always in the headlines."

She says conversations will continue, notably with business leaders, because of concerns over stereotyping and income and economic disparity.

"We have to make real progress and meaningful progress in addressing that," she said.

"I think we have to have some critical conversations. It doesn't always have to be in the public eye. We certainly have to talk to those in a position as business leaders to effect meaningful change. We have to have some real dialogue."