Most of the seven candidates in the running to be Winnipeg's next mayor showed up for a mayoral forum held at the Circle of Life Thunderbird House Saturday.

Michel Fillion didn't show. But one of the frontrunners in the race wasn't welcome.

Gord Steeves was purposely left off the invitation list. Steeves came under fire after his wife made racist comments about aboriginal people on Facebook.

The other candidates in the running to be mayor, Paula Havixbeck, Judy Wasylycia-Leis, Brian Bowman, David Sanders, and Robert-Falcon Ouellette attended.

Aboriginal issues were the focus of discussion, with the issue of missing and murdered women front and centre.

Sylvia Boudreau, one of the organizers of the mayoral forum at Thunderbird House, said organizers have been watching Steeves closely, especially during the last few weeks.

"In terms of his past involvement, or lack of involvement with the indigenous community, the decision was made not to open an invitation to him," she said.

Boudreau said Lorrie Steeves' Facebook post also played into the decision to leave him off the list, but it was more than that.

"The reason behind it is certainly not to disrupt the process, but I think in the past couple weeks, other indigenous individuals who are prominent in the community have attempted to engage him and it really hasn't gone far," she said.

Boudreau also said leaving Steeves off the invitation list was being realistic about the chances of him showing up.

"Personally if we did invite him, I don't think he would have showed. So I think we foresaw that in our crystal ball," she said.