{"id":207126,"date":"2019-03-27T02:52:05","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T06:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=207126"},"modified":"2019-03-27T02:52:05","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T06:52:05","slug":"liberal-premier-calls-prince-edward-island-election-for-april-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/03\/27\/liberal-premier-calls-prince-edward-island-election-for-april-23\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberal premier calls Prince Edward Island election for April 23"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
\u201cThis is Prince Edward Island’s time,\u201d MacLauchlan told a nomination meeting for a local candidate at a Charlottetown hotel. \u201cWe are experiencing a sense of opportunity like never before in our long and distinguished history.\u201d (Photo<\/a>: Wade MacLauchlan\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CHARLOTTETOWN \u2013 P.E.I. Premier Wade MacLauchlan called an early election Tuesday night, announcing an April 23 vote that polls suggest could produce Canada’s first Green Party government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is Prince Edward Island’s time,\u201d MacLauchlan told a nomination meeting for a local candidate at a Charlottetown hotel. \u201cWe are experiencing a sense of opportunity like never before in our long and distinguished history.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Liberal government didn’t have to take voters to the polls until Oct. 7 under the province’s fixed-date election provisions, but there was an apparent desire to avoid overlap with the federal election this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s been four years. We had a mandate and fulfilled it,\u201d MacLauchlan told reporters when asked about the early call. \u201cThis is an opportunity to ask Islanders for their confidence to build on that record.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite a booming economy, polls suggest the Liberal party is likely facing a rough ride, with the Greens seen as a legitimate contender for power.<\/p>\n

In his speech, MacLauchlan called the Progressive Conservatives a party of chaos and opposition \u2013 saying they’ve had five leaders in four years \u2013 and suggested the Greens would be too risky.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Green Party is untested, and the future of our province is too important to risk on uncertain expensive social experiments, led by a career politician,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Green Leader Peter Bevan-Baker, a dentist, became the first party member elected to the legislature in 2015, and the Greens snagged a second seat in a 2017 byelection.<\/p>\n

A Corporate Research Associates poll released this month suggests the Greens had a healthy lead, followed by the Progressive Conservatives, who picked a new leader, Dennis King, in February.<\/p>\n

The Liberals were in third place, the poll suggests.<\/p>\n

The Liberals have been in power since 2007, and there are signs MacLauchlan \u2013 a longtime academic who began his political career in 2015 as premier \u2013 is personally unpopular.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s about people. It’s about you \u2013 and it’s about time that the government of the people of P.E.I. understand, respect and live by that message,\u201d the PC party said in a tweet as MacLauchlan was making his election call.<\/p>\n

The Greens, meanwhile, posted a clip Tuesday night of Bevan-Baker playing \u201cFirst Call\u201d on his trumpet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a wonderful way to begin the writ period \u2013 with a blast from Peter’s trumpet,\u201d the party said on Facebook.<\/p>\n

In his speech, MacLauchlan touted advancements made by his government on housing, lower taxes and reducing child poverty by more than half.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrince Edward Island is working,\u201d he told the enthusiastic partisan crowd. \u201cThere are now more opportunities for Islanders to get ahead and thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The standings at dissolution in the Island legislature were 16 Liberals, eight Tories, two Green and one independent member.<\/p>\n

The Island has only ever been governed by the Liberals or Tories. The last time a minority government was elected in P.E.I. was 1890.<\/p>\n

MacLauchlan said Tuesday night that he notified the other party leaders earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

He is scheduled to make his first campaign stop Wednesday morning in Charlottetown.<\/p>\n

The election will also include a binding referendum on electoral
\nreform \u2013 asking voters if they wish to stay with the current
\nfirst-past-the-post system or change to a
\nmixed-member-proportional-representation model.<\/p>\n

It won’t be the first time P.E.I. voters have been asked to consider electoral reform.<\/p>\n

In fact, they voted 52 per cent in favour of switching to mixed member proportional reform during a plebiscite in 2016, but MacLauchlan rejected the results because of a low turnout of about 36 per cent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHARLOTTETOWN \u2013 P.E.I. Premier Wade MacLauchlan called an early election Tuesday night, announcing an April 23 vote that polls suggest …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":207133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-kevin-bissett","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207135,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207126\/revisions\/207135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}