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All 32 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island 17 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Seats won by each party per district. Voters elect two members (one Councillor and Assemblyman) from each of the 16 districts. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1979 Prince Edward Island general election was held on April 23, 1979. [1]
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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 Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island, along with the Queen of Canada in Right of Prince Edward Island, represented by the Lieutenant-Governor of Prince Edward Island, 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.
Alexander Bradshaw Campbell is a former politician of Prince Edward Island, Canada. He is the son of former premier Thane A. Campbell and Cecilia L. Bradshaw. He entered politics by winning a seat in the legislature through a 1965 by-election in 5th Prince. Later the same year he was elected leader of the PEI Liberal Party and, in 1966 took the party to power becoming, at 32, one of the youngest premiers ever elected in Canada. He also held the position of Attorney-General from 1966 until 1969.
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.
Doreen Sark was a Canadian politician, who was interim leader of the Prince Edward Island New Democratic Party from 1979 to 1981. Leading the party in the 1979 provincial election, she was the first woman ever to lead a political party in the province in an election campaign.
An interim is a provisional or temporary intervening period of time.
5th Queens was an electoral district in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, which elected two members to the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island from 1873 to 1993. The district was also known as Charlottetown Common until 1939.
