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.
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.
Prince Edward Island used to have the purest two-party system of any level of government in Canada until both 1996 and 2015 elections.
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.
[6] At the Leadership Convention in Charlottetown, 3 November 2012, the Green Party of Prince Edward Island elected Peter Bevan-Baker as leader.
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.
Michelle Neill was elected party leader on April 23, 2022, succeeding Joe Byrne who had resigned on September 1, 2020.
The party officially registered on March 5, 2010,[8] and fielded 11 candidates in the 2011 election under leader Billy Cann.
[13] 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.
Voter turnout on Prince Edward Island is the highest for any jurisdiction in North America above the municipal level.
[citation needed] For example, the 2003 election occurred on the day after Hurricane Juan struck, knocking out power to much of the Island and felling trees, but turnout was higher than 80%.
political discrimination rulings based on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms have put this longstanding tradition into question, however.
Politicians expressing worry about these developments included MP Shawn Murphy (Liberal-Charlottetown) and PEI Finance Minister Wes Sheridan (also a Liberal).
[14] Because of the highly centrist trend that characterizes both major parties, elections are rarely fought on wildly contrasting platforms, and instead on a collection of local issues.
Recently, a prominent issue has been the continued operation of the Island's five rural hospitals, which is increasingly questioned by the growing urban population.
The economy is heavily based on agriculture, the fishery, tourism, and bioscience,[15] with no natural resources or heavy industry (although light manufacturing of avionics parts is growing in importance).
This results in PEI being considerably overrepresented in the current House, as six of Canada's ten provinces are to varying degrees.