1979 Prince Edward Island general election

1979 Prince Edward Island general election

←  1978 April 23, 1979 (1979-04-23) 1982  →
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All 32 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island 17 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Lib Leader Angus MacLean Bennett Campbell Party Progressive Conservative Liberal Leader since September 25, 1976 December 9, 1978 Leader's seat 4th Queens 3rd Kings Last election 15 seats, 48.1% 17 seats, 50.7% Seats won 21 11 Seat change 6 6 Popular vote 68,440 58,175 Percentage 53.3% 45.3% Swing 5.2pp 5.4pp
Seats won by each party per district. Voters elect two members (one Councillor and Assemblyman) from each of the 16 districts.
Premier before election Bennett Campbell Liberal Premier after election Angus MacLean Progressive Conservative

The 1979 Prince Edward Island general election was held on April 23, 1979. ^[1]

The election was held just one year after the 1978 election, which featured a 17–15 split in MLAs in the legislature. Following the resignation of former premier Alex Campbell from his seat, the Legislature was in a 15–15 tie in voting members (the Liberal Speaker, Russell Perry, could not cast active votes in his role), the new Premier Bennett Campbell decided to call an election in an effort to regain his lost majority. The gambit failed, and instead the Progressive Conservatives led by Angus MacLean formed a strong majority government.

The campaign was the first to feature a female party leader running in PEI, with Doreen Sark serving as interim leader of the NDP. ^[2] The campaign was also the only one in which the "Draft Beer Party of PEI" ran, with one candidate in 5th Queens.

Party standings

↓

21	11
PC	Liberal

Party		Party Leader	Seats			Popular Vote
			1978	Elected	Change	#	%	Change
	Progressive Conservative	Angus MacLean	15	21	+6	68,440	53.3%	+5.2%
	Liberal	Bennett Campbell	17	11	-6	58,174	45.3%	-5.4%
	New Democratic	Doreen Sark (interim)	0	0	-	1,655	1.3%	+0.4%
	Draft Beer Party	-	-	0	-	200	0.2%	+0.2%

Popular vote PC   53.27% Liberal   45.28% New Democratic   1.29% Others   0.16%

Seats summary PC   65.63% Liberal   34.37%

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. Before 1963, Councillors were only elected by landowners within a district, but afterward they were elected in the same manner as Assemblymen. ^[3]

Kings

District	Assemblyman		Party	Councillor		Party
1st Kings		Ross "Johnny" Young	Liberal		Albert Fogarty	Progressive Conservative
2nd Kings		Roddy Pratt	Progressive Conservative		Leo Rossiter	Progressive Conservative
3rd Kings		William Bennett Campbell	Liberal		Bud Ings	Liberal
4th Kings		Pat Binns	Progressive Conservative		Gilbert R. Clements	Liberal
5th Kings		Arthur J. MacDonald	Liberal		Lowell Johnston	Progressive Conservative

Prince

District	Assemblyman		Party	Councillor		Party
1st Prince		Russell Perry	Liberal		Robert E. Campbell	Liberal
2nd Prince		George R. Henderson	Liberal		Allison Ellis	Liberal
3rd Prince		Léonce Bernard	Liberal		Edward Clark	Liberal
4th Prince		William MacDougall	Progressive Conservative		Prowse Chappel	Progressive Conservative
5th Prince		George McMahon	Progressive Conservative		Peter Pope	Progressive Conservative

Queens

District	Assemblyman		Party	Councillor		Party
1st Queens		Marion Reid	Progressive Conservative		Leone Bagnall	Progressive Conservative
2nd Queens		Gordon Lank	Progressive Conservative		Lloyd MacPhail	Progressive Conservative
3rd Queens		Horace B. Carver	Progressive Conservative		Fred Driscoll	Progressive Conservative
4th Queens		J. Angus MacLean	Progressive Conservative		Daniel Compton	Progressive Conservative
5th Queens		James M. Lee	Progressive Conservative		Wilfred MacDonald	Progressive Conservative
6th Queens		Barry Clark	Progressive Conservative		Jim Larkin	Progressive Conservative

Sources

1. "Provincial General Election Results, 1979" (PDF). Elections PEI. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-10-20. Retrieved 2016-10-20.
2. "Woman leads Nova Scotia NDP". The Toronto Star . Toronto. Canadian Press. November 17, 1980. p. A5.
3. Fred Driscoll. "History and Politics of Prince Edward Island" (PDF). Canadian Parliamentary Review.

Further reading

• Byers, R.B. (1981). Canadian annual review of politics and public affairs. 1979 . Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN   978-1-4426-7193-5.