The politics of Prince Edward Island are centred on a provincial government resembling that of the other Canadian provinces. The capital of the province of Prince Edward Island is Charlottetown, where the lieutenant governor and the premier reside, and where the provincial legislature and cabinet are located.
Legislature Prince Edward Island's government is based on the Westminster model, with a unicameral legislature – the General Assembly – consisting of the Lieutenant Governor and the Legislative Assembly with 27 members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), elected from 27 roughly equal electoral districts using plurality voting (first-past-the-post voting). The legislature may sit for a maximum of five years, as is customary in the Westminster system, and may be dissolved at any time by the lieutenant-governor, normally on the advice of the premier. By custom, the provincial Cabinet (which currently has ten members) is drawn exclusively from the Legislative Assembly, and must secure the support of a majority of the Assembly's members.
Political history
Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name. The island is part of Mi'kma'ki, the lands of the Mi'kmaq people. Explored by Europeans in the 16th century, the French claimed all of the lands of the Maritimes in 1604 and French colonists arrived in 1720. By conquest, the British claimed all of the lands including Prince Edward Island in 1763. It became the British colony of St. John Island in 1769 and joined Canada on July 1, 1873.
Electoral history The two-seat district era (1873–1996)
During this period, all of PEI's MLAs were elected in two-seat districts using first-past-the-post voting. In the early elections, different voters voted to fill the two separate seats, but in the later years, the exact same voters could vote to fill each of the two seats.
Election date Win. Totalseats Conservative/Progressive Conservative Liberal NDP Green Other Seats Vote(%) Seats Vote(%) Seats Vote(%) Seats Vote(%) Seats Vote(%) Seat-winning party 1873 April 1, 1873 CON 30 15 10 5 Non-partisan 1876 August 10, 1876 CON 30 15 7 8 Non-partisan 1879 April 2, 1879 CON 30 24 6 1882 May 8, 1882 CON 30 21 9 1886 June 30, 1886 CON 30 18 12 1890 January 30, 1890 CON 30 15 15 1893 December 13, 1893 LIB 30 7 23 1897 July 28, 1897 LIB 30 11 19 1900 December 12, 1900 LIB 30 9 46.5 21 53.5 1904 December 7, 1904 LIB 30 8 45.9 22 54.1 1908 November 18, 1908 LIB 30 13 48.4 17 51.6 1912 January 3, 1912 CON 30 28 60.3 2 39.7 1915 September 16, 1915 CON 30 17 50.1 13 49.9 1919 July 24, 1919 LIB 30 6 46.1 24 53.9 1923 July 26, 1923 CON 30 25 51.5 5 43.8 4.7 1927 June 25, 1927 LIB 30 6 46.9 24 53.1 1931 August 6, 1931 CON 30 18 51.7 12 48.3 1935 July 23, 1935 LIB 30 – 42.0 30 58.0 1939 May 18, 1939 LIB 30 4 47.0 26 53.0 1943 September 15, 1943 LIB 30 10 46.1 20 51.3 2.1 0.5 1947December 11, 1947 LIB 30 6 45.8 24 49.8 4.3 0.1 1951 April 26, 1951 LIB 30 6 46.7 24 51.6 1.7 1955 May 25, 1955 LIB 30 3 45.0 27 55.0 1959 September 1, 1959 PC 30 22 50.9 8 49.1 1962 December 10, 1962 PC 30 19 50.6 11 49.4 1966 May 30, 1966 LIB 32 15 49.5 17 50.5 1970 May 11, 1970 LIB 32 5 41.7 27 58.3 1974 April 29, 1974 LIB 32 6 40.2 26 53.9 5.9 1978 April 24, 1978 LIB 32 15 48.2 17 50.7 1.1 1979 April 23, 1979 PC 32 21 53.2 11 45.3 1.3 0.2 1982 September 27, 1982 PC 32 21 53.6 11 45.7 0.7 1986 April 21, 1986 LIB 32 11 45.6 21 50.4 4.0 1989 May 29, 1989 LIB 32 2 35.8 30 60.7 3.5 1993 March 29, 1993 LIB 32 1 39.5 31 55.1 5.4
The Post-Two party era (1996–present) + Elections to the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island (1996–2023) - seats won by partyGovernmentPCLiberalPC Party 1996 2000 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023Progressive Conservative 18 26 23 4 5 8 13 22Liberal 8 1 4 23 22 18 6 3Green 1 8 2New Democratic 1 Total 27 27 27 27 27 27 27 27
Notes
Political parties
Prince Edward Island used to have the purest two-party system of any level of government in Canada until both 1996 and 2015 elections. Since joining the Canadian Confederation in 1873, the province has been governed at intervals by the Liberal Party of Prince Edward Island and the Progressive Conservative Party of Prince Edward Island (which has gone by other names in the past). Third Party candidates have been elected 12 times during that time.
In the Prince Edward Island 1996 election, Herb Dickieson of the Island New Democrats was the elected member for West Point-Bloomfield. He served from 1996 to 2000.
The next third party candidate to earn a seat in the provincial legislature was in the 2015 election when Peter Bevan-Baker, leader of the Green Party of Prince Edward Island, was elected in the riding of Kellys Cross-Cumberland. In a 2017 by-election PEI Green Party member Hannah Bell was elected from Charlottetown-Parkdale, marking the first time in Prince Edward Island's politics that two third-party candidates had held seats in the legislature.
In the 2019 election, the Green Party elected eight and became the new official opposition party, while the Liberals became the new third party. Thus PEI's two-party system finally ended to become a semi-two-party system.
In the 2023 election, the Liberals regained official opposition status.
Political parties are registered in the province, under Section 24 of the Election Act.Registered Political Parties at Elections PEI. Accessed July 23, 2012.PEI Election Law at Elections PEI. Accessed July 23, 2012.
The Progressive Conservative Party The Progressive Conservative Party of Prince Edward Island, founded in 1873, was a fully incorporated wing of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (and its antecedents) until the federal party was disbanded in 2003. It is not formally a part of the new Conservative Party of Canada, but the two organizations share members, and most senior provincial officials have openly stated support for the federal party. It has governed frequently, most recently from 1996 to 2007. The party is strongly of the Red Tory political tradition. In October 2011, "The Progressive Conservatives boosted their seat count from two to five," out of 27. Due to a floor crossing on October 3, 2013, followed the next day by an expulsion of an MLA, the seat total fell to three. The party won 8 seats in the 2015 election to expand its seats as the official opposition. The party won 12 seats in the 2019 election, to become the first minority government since 1893. It increased its seat count to 13 in an extension election in July 2019, then won a by-election in November 2020, to up their number to 14 seats, thus becoming a majority government. The party won an increased majority of 22 seats, in the 2023 election.
Green Party The Green Party of Prince Edward Island was founded in 2005, and ran in the 2007 election for the first time. The party received a larger proportion of the total vote than the NDP during the 2007 provincial election.
In July 2012, the Green Party of PEI leader and co-founder Sharon Labchuk resigned. Darcie Lanthier served as interim leader until November 2012. At the Leadership Convention in Charlottetown, 3 November 2012, the Green Party of Prince Edward Island elected Peter Bevan-Baker as leader. Bevan-Baker was elected to the Legislature in 2015, winning the party's first seat since the party was founded. He was joined in the Legislature by Hannah Bell in a 2017 by–election. In the 2019 election, they surpassed the Liberal Party by both seat size and popular vote to become the province's Official Opposition party, as they gained six more seats from the Liberal Party. The Greens were reduced to two seats in the 2023 election, losing their status as official opposition to the Liberals.
The Liberal Party The Liberal Party of Prince Edward Island, founded in 1873, is a fully incorporated wing of the Liberal Party of Canada. It has governed frequently, including several notable stretches from 1891 to 1911 and 1935 to 1959. It most recently held government from 2007 to 2019. In October 2011, the Liberal Party lost two seats, but retained 22 out of 27 seats in the Legislature. The seat total was 23 from October 3, 2013, following a floor crossing, until February 23, 2015, due to three MLA resignations, thus reducing to 20. The party dropped to 18 seats in the 2015 election. Then in 2017 due to a resignation (and loss in subsequent by-election), followed by a floor crossing in 2018, the party dropped to 16 seats. The party suffered further losses in the 2019 election due to gains by the Green Party and Progressive Conservatives, reducing the Liberals to 6 seats. This resulted in the Liberals becoming the province's third party for the first time in their history. The party was further reduced to 5 seats in September 2020, with the resignation of an MLA and subsequent loss of the resultant by-election in November 2020. The Liberals regained their status as the official opposition, winning three seats to the Greens two in the 2023 election.
The New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party of Prince Edward Island, founded in 1962, are a fully incorporated wing of the New Democratic Party of Canada. While nominally included as one of the Island's major political parties, it has elected only one member in its history, usually performing poorly in general elections and finishing behind the other parties. The party's candidates often finish last out of party-affiliated candidates in each riding, though in 2000 Herb Dickieson, the sitting MLA, finished second, and in 1947, a Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (precursor to the NDP) candidate finished second in a riding with a Conservative candidate who had been thrown out of the party. The New Democrats are currently unrepresented in the legislature. Michelle Neill was elected party leader on April 23, 2022, succeeding Joe Byrne who had resigned on September 1, 2020. The New Democrats failed to win any seats in 2023.
The Island Party The Island Party of Prince Edward Island formed after the 2007 election. The party officially registered on March 5, 2010, and fielded 11 candidates in the 2011 election under leader Billy Cann. The party was deregistered when it failed to nominate the required 10 candidates for the 2015 election and did not file an information return.
The party re-registered on September 9, 2022. Party president Paul Smitz cited Liberal and PC governments' failure to rescind the controversial Municipal Government Act as a significant reason for the party re-forming. University of Prince Edward Island political science professor Don Desserud described the party's platform as "right-leaning" with "some progressive social policy," and compared the party to the United Farmers movement. Members of the party participated in the 2022 Freedom Convoy protests against COVID-19 public health mandates. The party nominated 11 candidates for the 2023 election under leader Ahava Kálnássy de Kálnás, electing none and receiving around 1% of the popular vote.
Political culture PEI has been called the closest thing to a direct democracy in Canada. Because of its small population (135,851 residents, as of the 2006 Canadian census) and sizable legislature, each MLA represents, at most, approximately 5,000 people. Ridings, especially urban ones, tend to be quite small. The result of this is that almost everyone knows their MLA personally, or through a friend or colleague. Provincial elections on PEI make next to no use of television and radio advertising, and are instead fought house-to-house, since tiny districts make it realistically possible to visit almost every constituent while campaigning.