1915 Prince Edward Island general election

1915 Prince Edward Island general election

September 16, 1915 (1915-09-16)
All 30 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island 16 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   LIB Leader John A. Mathieson unknown Party Conservative Liberal Leader since 1903 - Leader's seat 5th Kings - Last election 28 seats, 59.2% 2 seats, 40.8% Seats won 17 13 Seat change 11 11 Popular vote 17,179 17,097 Percentage 50.1% 49.9% Swing 9.1pp 9.1pp
Premier before election John A. Mathieson Conservative Premier after election John A. Mathieson Conservative

The 1915 Prince Edward Island general election was held in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island on September 16, 1915. The election was held in the midst of the First World War.

The election was won by the governing Conservatives, led by incumbent Premier John A. Mathieson, whose government lost a large number of seats as the opposition Liberals won back a number of districts lost in previous elections.

The Liberals in this election were able to climb up from one of their worst electoral defeats in 1912 to nearly topple the Mathieson government. However, it is unknown who the Liberal leader was during the election, if there was one at all. Previous Official Opposition Leader John Richards chose not to run in this election, while his successor John Howatt Bell was chosen as leader following the election. It is possible the Liberals did not have an official leader for this election.

Party Standings

Party		Party Leader	Seats		Popular Vote
			1912	Elected	#	%
	Conservative	John A. Mathieson	28	17	17,179	50.1%
	Liberal	unknown	2	13	17,097	49.9%

Members Elected

The Legislature of Prince Edward Island had two levels of membership from 1893 to 1996 - Assemblymen and Councillors. This was a holdover from when the Island had a bicameral legislature, the General Assembly and the Legislative Council.

In 1893, the Legislative Council was abolished and had its membership merged with the Assembly, though the two titles remained separate and were elected by different electoral franchises. Assembleymen were elected by all eligible voters of within a district, while Councillors were only elected by landowners within a district.

Kings

District	Assemblyman		Party	Councillor		Party
1st Kings		Augustine A. MacDonald	Conservative		John McLean	Conservative
2nd Kings		Harvey D. McEwen	Conservative		James D. McInnis	Liberal
3rd Kings		John A. Dewar	Conservative		James J. Johnston	Liberal
4th Kings		Albert P. Prowse	Conservative		Murdock MacKinnon	Conservative
5th Kings		Roderick J. McLellan	Conservative		John Alexander Mathieson	Conservative

Queens

District	Assemblyman		Party	Councillor		Party
1st Queens		Murdock Kennedy	Conservative		Alexander McNevin	Conservative
2nd Queens		George E. Hughes	Liberal		John McMillan	Liberal
3rd Queens		Leonard Wood	Conservative		David McDonald	Liberal
4th Queens		John S. Martin	Conservative		George Forbes	Liberal
5th Queens		James Paton	Conservative		Stephen R. Jenkins	Conservative

Prince

District	Assemblyman		Party	Councillor		Party
1st Prince		Benjamin Gallant	Liberal		Charles E. Dalton	Conservative
2nd Prince		Albert Charles Saunders	Liberal		William H. Dennis	Liberal
3rd Prince		Aubin Edmond Arsenault	Conservative		Alfred E. MacLean	Liberal
4th Prince		John Howatt Bell*	Liberal		Walter Lea	Liberal
5th Prince		James A. MacNeill	Conservative		Hubert Howatt	Liberal

• John Howatt Bell named Leader of the Official Opposition and Liberal Party Leader following the election

Further reading

• Hopkins, J. Castell (1916). The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, 1915. Toronto: The Annual Review Publishing Company.