Prince Edward Island had a bit more attention from outside the island with the prospect of the Green Party forming government in the province. Prince Edward Island is known for firsts with the first female premier, openly gay male premier, and a premier of non-European descent. The Green Party government did not materialise but there were a few firsts in the 2019 election.
- multiple members elected from 3 parties in the province
- most number of Green Party seats in any province
- Green Party opposition in any province
- minority government in the modern era of the province*
*The 1890 election produced a 15-15 tie between the Conservatives and Liberals. The incumbent Conservatives started out in power until 1891 when the Liberals took over. This is a much different minority government.
The Progressive Conservatives picked up the pattern of 3 Liberal elections followed by 3 PC elections since 1966 except for a 4th Liberal election in 1978. The PCs won 12 seats last night to 8 for the Greens and 6 for the Liberals.
Dennis King has only been the PC leader since February. To his credit, King ran a campaign based on civility and working together. King's speech was as kind as Jason Kenney's Alberta speech was mean. That might be the difference between "united" and "progressive."
A dentist by trade, Peter Bevan-Baker proved a lesson in perseverance. Bevan-Baker ran in 9 provincial (Ontario and PEI) and federal elections before being the first Green Party member elected from the province in 2015. The Green Party doubled in size when Hannah Bell won a 2017 by-election. Now Bevan-Baker is the opposition leader in the legislature in Charlottetown.
So many of us are in pain tonight. Press release from @peigreens on the loss of a friend #peipoli https://t.co/UJ3Q3cgeqg
— Peter Bevan-Baker (@peterbevanbaker) April 20, 2019
Bevan-Baker kicked off his speech by recognising the tremendous loss of Josh Underhay and his son Oliver. Underhay (35) and his son (6) died in a canoeing accident last Friday. Underhay was the Green Party candidate for District 9, Charlottetown-Hillsborough Park. The Green Party suspended all campaigning activities until the election. The other parties suspended activities through Easter weekend.
Unlike in the United States, where dead candidates can win elections, Section 45 of the PEI Election Act calls for the election to be postponed and a by-election within 3 months of the death of a candidate.
There are 27 seats in the legislature.
Provincial elections don't normally bring out federal party leaders. Green Party leader Elizabeth May came out to campaign for the Greens in Prince Edward Island.
Speaking of May, she got married on Earth Day on Monday to John Kidder, brother of the late Canadian actor Margot Kidder. John Kidder will run in the federal election for the Green party in the Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Valley (BC) riding.
As we saw with Jack Layton and Olivia Chow, married people can both represent Parliament from different ridings.
Wade MacLauchlan was trying for his second term as premier. The Liberals formed government with Robert Ghiz in 2007 and 2011. MacLauchlan was the second and final openly gay premier in Canada to lose power within the last year. Kathleen Wynne went down to defeat in Ontario in 2018.
MacLauchlan also lost his seat to Bloyce Thompson (PC) in the Stanhope-Marshfield district.
The economic numbers were good by PEI standards with its first surplus budget in a decade and unemployment down but still over 10%. This was more about a change election with an unique twist, a first for the province.
NDP leader Joe Byrne lost his election. The NDP once again got 0 seats; the party's last and only representative served from 1996-2000.
The Progressive Conservatives contingency is all male except for Darlene Compton, who won in Belfast-Murray River. The Greens contingency is 63% female with 5 of 8 women representing the party. The Liberals had 4 women in the 2015 election but none in the 2019 election.
2019 Prince Edward Island election preview
Green Maritimes? Prince Edward Island elects Green Party MLA
PEI Islanders came out in strong numbers for advance voting with 37,865 voters in 3 days, up 9,000 from the 2015 election. The almost 38,000 total sounds small, but represents 36.4% of the eligible voters.
Voter turnout was 80.5%, slightly lower than the last provincial election. District 9 could account for the difference.
Lent my voice to this short video we did @cbcpei explaining mixed member proportional in advance of #PEI's referendum on electoral reform. Someone joked we used @RealRonHoward, which made my day. #peipolihttps://t.co/mjLL1bAn5H
— Kerry Campbell (@kerrywcampbell) March 28, 2019
PEI voters also were at the polls to vote on a referendum as to keep the current system (first past the post) or switch to mixed member proportional. As the CBC News video explains, mixed member proportional would have created 18 districts to vote for individual people with 9 districts going to people based on the popular vote total.
The referendum needed to reach 50% + 1 and win the majority vote of 17 of the 27 districts. The total fell short of 50% with 15 districts casting a majority vote for the change.
While the MLA vote was postponed in District 9, Charlottetown-Hillsborough Park, voters could still cast a ballot for the referendum.
Mixed member proportional is designed to reward parties with larger vote totals but not as many seats in proportion to the vote totals.
CanadianCrossing.com Prince Edward Island coverage
2019 Canadian politics preview
CanadianCrossing.com Canadian politics coverage
The April 23 election date would have been free of Canadian teams but the Toronto Maple Leafs were forced to play Game 7. Unlike the Alberta election with 2 American teams, Toronto and Boston has a lot more pull in Prince Edward Island.
The polls closed at 7 pm ADT while the game started at 8 pm ADT. CBCT (CBC Charlottetown) had a bit of both: showing the election coverage before joining the game in progress. The Prince Edward Island TV situation is rather odd even by Maritime standards. The other Charlottetown signals are satellite retransmissions from New Brunswick: CKCW-DT-1 (CTV) from Moncton and CHNB-DT-14 (Global) from Saint John.
NHL fans could have watched Rogers Sportsnet, another CBC affiliate, or streamed the game online. Politics fans could have streamed the CBC election coverage online.
photos credit: CBC News Network
Twitter captures: @peterbevanbaker; @kerrywcampbell
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