Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island

Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island
Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island
64th General Assembly of Prince Edward Island
Type
Type	Unicameral
Houses	Legislative Assembly
Leadership
Speaker	Carolyn Bertram, Liberal Party ; since November 1, 2011
Structure
Seats	27
Political groups	Progressive Conservative Party; Liberal Party
Elections
Last election	October 3, 2011
Meeting place
	Province House, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada
Website
	www.assembly.pe.ca

The Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island, along with the Lieutenant-Governor, forms the parliament of the province. The General Assembly meets at Province House, which is located at the intersection of Richmond and Great George Streets in Charlottetown.

History

As a colony, Prince Edward Island originally had a bicameral legislature founded in 1773 with the Legislative Council of Prince Edward Island serving as the upper house and the House of Assembly as the lower house. Together they composed the 1st General Assembly of the Island of Saint John. After the name of the colony changed in 1798, the body became known as the General Assembly of Prince Edward Island.

In 1769, a British Order in Council established a new government on the British colony of St. John’s Island (present day P.E.I.). In 1770, Lieutenant Governor Walter Patterson (the island’s first Governor) arrived and appointed a Council to assist him in the administration of the island. By 1773, at the insistence of the British government, Governor Patterson summoned the island’s first assembly.

Elections for the island’s first House of Assembly were held on July 4, 1773, with 18 members being elected. Tradition has it that the first session of the island’s new assembly was held in the Crossed Keys Tavern on the corner of Queen and Dorchester Streets in Charlottetown; however, a journal entry contradicts this and indicates that it was actually held in the home of James Richardson.

In 1839, an important distinction was drawn between the executive and legislative capacities of the Legislative Council. This distinction proved to be an important step on the road to responsible government which was finally implemented in 1851.

Prior to 1893, Prince Edward Island had a bicameral system of government, consisting of a Legislative Council and a House of Assembly. These two bodies were amalgamated in 1893 to create one Legislative Assembly consisting of 30 members elected from 15 different constituencies. Each constituency returned a Councillor and an Assemblyman to the Assembly. The only change to this system of returning members to the assembly was the addition of two Members resulting from the creation of 6th Queens in 1966. In 1996, the system and the electoral map were restructured, and the province now has twenty-seven Members of the Legislative Assembly, each elected from a different constituency.

Composition

The Legislative Assembly currently has 27 single-member districts and is currently the smallest provincial assembly in Canada.

Prior to the 1996 provincial election, the province was divided into 16 dual-member districts, each of which was represented by one member who held the title Assemblyman and one member who held the title Councillor. This was a holdover from the legislature's historic bicameral structure — instead of simply abolishing its upper house as most Canadian provinces with historically bicameral legislatures did, Prince Edward Island merged the two houses in 1893. Although both members sat in the same legislative house, all voters in a district voted for the assemblyman while only landowners could vote for the councillor. Excepting the division of 5th Queens, the district that contained the capital city of Charlottetown, into two districts in 1966, these district boundaries were never adjusted for demographic or population changes.

The property qualification was discontinued in 1963, largely eliminating any practical distinction between the two roles, although the nominal titles continued to be used until the current single-member districts were introduced in 1996.

The seating plan of the legislature is rare for assemblies modeled on the House of Commons in Westminster. Traditionally, the Government sits on the side of the House to the right of the Speaker with the opposition to the left of the Speaker; in the PEI assembly, this arrangement is reversed. The reason is that before central heating was installed, the stove which heated the room was to the left of the Speaker and the governments of the day chose to be nearer the stove.^{[citation needed]}

Members

Cabinet ministers are in bold, party leaders are in italic, leader of the opposition is designated by a star (*), and the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly is designated by a dagger (†).

Member		Party
James Aylward	Progressive Conservative	Stratford-Kinlock
Carolyn Bertram†	Liberal	Rustico-Emerald
Paula Biggar	Liberal	Tyne Valley-Linkletter
Richard Brown	Liberal	Charlottetown-Victoria Park
Kathleen Casey	Liberal	Charlottetown-Lewis Point
Olive Crane	Progressive Conservative	Morell-Mermaid
Doug Currie	Liberal	Charlottetown-Parkdale
Valerie Docherty	Liberal	Kellys Cross-Cumberland
Bush Dumville	Liberal	West Royalty-Springvale
Sonny Gallant	Liberal	Evangeline-Miscouche
Robert Ghiz	Liberal	Charlottetown-Brighton
Gerard Greenan	Liberal	Summerside-St. Eleanors
Robert Henderson	Liberal	O'Leary-Inverness
Colin LaVie	Progressive Conservative	Souris-Elmira
Ron MacKinley	Liberal	Cornwall-Meadowbank
Charlie McGeoghegan	Liberal	Belfast-Murray River
Alan McIsaac	Liberal	Vernon River-Stratford
Robert Mitchell	Liberal	Charlottetown-Sherwood
Pat Murphy	Liberal	Alberton-Roseville
Steven Myers	Progressive Conservative	Georgetown-St. Peters
Hal Perry*	Progressive Conservative	Tignish-Palmer Road
Allen Roach	Liberal	Montague-Kilmuir
Wes Sheridan	Liberal	Kensington-Malpeque
Janice Sherry	Liberal	Summerside-Wilmot
Robert Vessey	Liberal	York-Oyster Bed
Buck Watts	Liberal	Tracadie-Hillsborough Park
George Webster	Liberal	Borden-Kinkora

Party standings

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Template:Canadian politics/party colours/Liberal/row Template:Canadian politics/party colours/Progressive Conservatives/row

Affiliation		Members
Liberal Party	22
Progressive Conservative Party	5
Total		27
Government Majority		14

External links

The Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island, government website
Canadian Governments Compared

^ "Speech from the Throne". General Assembly of Prince Edward Island. Retrieved 2013-09-19.

[1]

v t e Politics of Prince Edward Island
Lieutenant Governor	Antoinette Perry Former lieutenant governors
Premier	Dennis King Former premiers
Opposition Leader	Hal Perry Former Opposition leaders
Speaker of the Assembly	Darlene Compton Former speakers
Legislative Assembly	Current assembly Former Assemblies Executive Council (Cabinet)
Political parties	Progressive Conservative Liberal Green Island New Democratic
Elections	Next general election Past elections
Current issues	Affordable housing Healthcare
Other Canadian politics	Federal BC AB SK MB ON QC NB NS PEI NL YU NT NU

History

Composition

Members

Party standings

See also

External links