Dennis King and the Progressive Conservatives won a minority government in 2019 in Prince Edward Island. The King Government won by-elections and formed a majority government.
Calling an election 6 months earlier than required proved to be a good call as King has been re-elected as premier with a convincing majority.
The PCs jumped from 15 to 22 seats, taking 6 of the 7 seats from the Green Party, the previous opposition party in the province, and a seat from the Liberals.
King said his party wants a "brighter future" on Prince Edward Island — noting that this begins with addressing health care, housing, climate change, and cost-of-living problems.
Green Party leader Peter Bevan-Baker and Karla Bernard are the only 2 Green Party in the PEI legislature. Bevan-Baker pulled out his district of New Haven-Rocky Point. Sharon Cameron, the Liberal Party leader who didn't have a seat, chose to run in New Haven-Rocky Point and finished 3rd.
The Greens had a 22% vote share while the Liberals had a record-low 17% share of the vote. The Greens finished second in a significant number of districts.
The Greens lost 6 seats and Liberals lost 3 seats last night.
King and the PCs didn't have seats in Charlottetown, the provincial capital and largest city on the island. Now they do.
The Liberals are now the opposition party, yet their leader doesn't have a seat. Cameron said in her speech that she wanted to be a "pain in the ass." We will have to wait and see if she gets an opportunity to be in the assembly in Charlottetown.
The Greens and Liberals were unhappy with the early call, originally scheduled for October. They only had 25 people running in 27 districts but that wasn't as much of an issue as running more against each other than aiming at King.
The NDP got 4% of the vote but didn't win a seat. The Island Party was likely the majority of the Other at 1% of the total vote. The PCs got 56% of the vote.
2023 Prince Edward Island election preview
There were 51 women of the 119 candidates in the 2023 provincial election. Women won 7 seats in the 2023 election, no mathematical change from 2019.
Seats with women flipped from green to blue (PCs). Jenn Redmond (PC) won District 5: Mermaid-Stratford by just 38 votes over Michele Beaton (Greens). Susie Dillon (PC) took over District 11: Charlottetown-Belvedere, which had been held by Hannah Bell (Greens), who did not run. Joanna Morrison (Greens) finished second.
One of the Liberals to retain a seat was Gord McNeilly, who became the first Black MLA in Prince Edward Island in 2019.
Dr. Herb Dickieson ran for the NDP in District 25: O'Leary-Inverness. Dr. Dickieson, a retired physician, was the MLA from 1996-2000 and is the only NDP MLA ever in the assembly in PEI. Dr. Dickieson's primary motivation in running this time was the threat of the closure of Western Hospital. The doctor lost to incumbent Rob Henderson (Liberal).
Bevan-Baker was a dentist before being elected to the assembly as a Green MLA. Maybe this only happens in Prince Edward Island.
Prince Edward Island has a Greens growth spurt with a minority government
2019 Prince Edward Island election preview
CanadianCrossing.com Prince Edward Island coverage
The voter turnout is what will be remembered from the 2023 election and not in a good way. Prince Edward Island had a 68.5% turnout for this election. While most municipalities in North America would love at 68.5% turnout, that is the lowest ever for the province.
The 2019 election saw a 80.5% turnout and that was slightly lower than the last provincial election.
Generally, lower turnout tends to benefit more conservative parties. The Greens had 30.6% in 2019 (25,302 votes) vs. 21.6% (16,134 votes) in 2023. The Liberals had 29.4% in 2019 (24,346 votes) vs. a record low of 17.2% (12,876 votes).
CanadianCrossing.com Canadian politics coverage
2023 Canadian politics preview
With this election win, the Progressive Conservatives have won twice in a row for the first time since they won three times in a row from 1996 to 2003.
— Craig Baird - Canadian History Ehx (@CraigBaird) April 3, 2023
To date, the Conservatives have won 19 PEI elections, while the Liberals have won 23.https://t.co/Nm04L4iPRj
King has talked about collaborating with the other parties during his first term as premier. That was more necessary when he didn't have a majority. Now the PCs have a strong majority and not much progress on problems getting worse, such as the aforementioned health care, housing, climate change, and cost-of-living problems.
There was a political strategy to calling an early election the day after the 2023 Canada Winter Games held on Prince Edward Island. The strategy worked more on the Greens and Liberals than success by the PCs. In 2027, the focus should be on King and the PCs: will they make life better for those on Prince Edward Island. Will the voters respond accordingly?
photo credit: CBC News
Twitter capture: @CraigBaird
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