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Create AccountPrince Edward Island is part of the Appalachian region, one of Canada’s seven physiographic regions. The island extends for 224 km, with a width ranging from 4 to 60 km. It is known for its reddish-brown soil, so-coloured due to high concentrations of iron oxides.
H. Wade MacLauchlan, CM, OPEI, MLA, 32nd premier of Prince Edward Island (2015–19), president of University of Prince Edward Island (1999–2011), lawyer, academic (born 10 December 1954 in Stanhope, PEI). MacLauchlan was sworn in as premier of Prince Edward Island on 23 February 2015, becoming the province’s first openly gay premier. The former law professor and university president received the Order of Canada in 2008 and the Order of Prince Edward Island in 2014. He is the author of Alex B. Campbell: The Prince Edward Island Premier Who Rocked the Cradle (2014).
Dennis (Denny) King, 33rd premier of Prince Edward Island (2019–), leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of PEI, journalist, communications specialist, author and storyteller (born 1 November 1971 in Georgetown, PEI). Dennis King was sworn in as premier of Prince Edward Island on 9 May 2019. In the general election of 23 April 2019, King and the Progressive Conservative party won a minority, defeating the incumbent Liberal premier, Wade MacLauchlan. King leads the first minority government in the island province since the provincial election of 1890.
George Godfrey, boxer (born 20 March 1853 in Charlottetown, PEI; died 18 October 1901 in Revere, Massachusetts). George Godfrey was a successful Black Canadian boxer who began his career at the age of 26. He won the World Colored Heavyweight championship in 1883 and held the title for five years. Godfrey retired in 1896 after competing in over 100 fights. He was the first of many great Black Canadian boxers from the Maritimes; others included George Dixon and Sam Langford. Godfrey was inducted into the PEI Sports Hall of Fame in 1990.
Georgetown, Prince Edward Island, incorporated as a town in 1912, population 555 (2016 census), 675 (2011 census). The town of Georgetown is the capital of Kings County. It is located on the province’s eastern coast, 52 km southeast of Charlottetown.
Prince Edward Island has a minority Progressive Conservative government, elected 23 April 2019. The premier is Dennis King and the lieutenant-governor is Antoinette Perry. Peter Bevan-Baker leads the only Green Party opposition in Canada. Until 2019, only the Liberals or Progressive Conservatives had ever governed or formed the official opposition. The dominance of these two parties has led some to call PEI the purest two-party system in the country. Yet PEI has seen a number of electoral firsts: Aubin-Edmond Arsenault was Canada’s first Acadian premier; Joe Ghiz was Canada’s first premier of non-European descent; and Catherine Callbeck was the first woman in Canada to win an election as premier.
Walter Patterson, army officer, landowner, first British governor of St. John’s Island [Prince Edward Island] (born c. 1735 near Rathmelton, County Donegal, Ireland; died 6 September 1798 in London, England). Patterson served with the British army in North America during the Seven Years’ War. In 1770, he was sworn in as the first British governor of St. John’s Island (renamed Prince Edward Island in 1799). His time as governor was marked by land speculation and political uproar.
Two months after becoming party leader, Dennis King led the Progressive Conservatives to a minority government in PEI with 12 seats and 36.5 per cent of the popular vote. Peter Bevan-Baker and the Green Party became the official opposition with 8 seats and 30.6 per cent of the vote, the best-ever showing for the party in a provincial or federal election.
Despite hosting talks about Confederation, Prince Edward Island did not join the Dominion of Canada until 1873, when a crippling debt forced it into the national fold as the country's seventh province.
Lennie Gallant, CM, folk musician (born 1955 in Rustico, PEI). Lennie Gallant is an Acadian singer-songwriter who has released 13 albums, ten in English and three in French. He has toured extensively in North America and has won numerous awards and prizes. He has won 18 East Coast Music Awards (ECMA) and was named the Fan’s Choice Entertainer of the Year in 2017. His 1994 song “Peter’s Dream” was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2019. Gallant was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2003.
Prohibition in Canada came about as a result of the temperance movement. It called for moderation or total abstinence from alcohol, based on the belief that drinking was responsible for many of society’s ills. The Canada Temperance Act (Scott Act) of 1878 gave local governments the “local option” to ban the sale of alcohol. Prohibition was first enacted on a provincial basis in Prince Edward Island in 1901. It became law in the remaining provinces, as well as in Yukon and Newfoundland, during the First World War. Liquor could be legally produced in Canada (but not sold there) and legally exported out of Canadian ports. Most provincial laws were repealed in the 1920s. PEI was the last to give up the “the noble experiment” in 1948.
Judith Lorie Kane, OC, golfer (born 19 December 1964 in Charlottetown, PEI). A four-time winner on the Ladies Professional Golfing Association (LPGA) Tour, Lorie Kane is tied with Sandra Post for the most LPGA wins by a Canadian golfer in a calendar year, with three. Kane is a two-time winner of the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award (1997, 2000) as Canada’s best female athlete and an Officer of the Order of Canada. She has been inducted into the Prince Edward Island Sports Hall of Fame, the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.
Lucy Maud Montgomery’s first novel, Anne of Green Gables (1908), became an instant bestseller and has remained in print for more than a century, making the character of Anne Shirley a mythic icon of Canadian culture. The book has sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide, been translated into at least 36 languages, as well as braille, and been adapted more than two dozen times in various mediums. A musical version first produced by the Charlottetown Festival in 1965 is the longest running annual musical theatre production in the world, while the award-winning 1985 CBC miniseries starring Megan Follows is the most-watched television program in Canadian history. Thousands of tourists visit Prince Edward Island each year to see the “sacred sites” related to the book, and the sale of Anne-related commodities such as souvenirs and dolls has come to constitute a cottage industry.
Lucy Maud Montgomery, OBE, writer (born 30 November 1874 in Clifton (now New London), PEI; died 24 April 1942 in Toronto, ON). Lucy Maud Montgomery is arguably Canada’s most widely read author. Her first novel, Anne of Green Gables (1908), became an instant best-seller. It has remained in print for more than a century, making the character of Anne Shirley a mythic icon of Canadian culture. Montgomery produced more than 500 short stories, 21 novels, two poetry collections, and numerous journal and essay anthologies. Her body of work has sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide. Anne of Green Gables alone has been translated into at least 36 languages as well as braille. It has been adapted dozens of times in various mediums. Montgomery was named an Officer of both the Order of the British Empire and the Literary and Artistic Institute of France. She was the first Canadian woman to be made a member of the British Royal Society of Arts and she was declared a Person of National Historic Significance in Canada.
“Freedom and a Farm.” The promise was exciting to the thousands of African Americans, most seeking to escape enslavement, who fought in British regiments during the American Revolutionary War (1775–83). Following the war, they joined tens of thousands of Loyalists — American refugees who had sided with the British. Between 80,000 and 100,000 Loyalists eventually fled the United States. About half came to British North America. The main waves arrived in 1783 and 1784. The territory that now includes the Maritime provinces became home to more than 30,000 Loyalists. Most of coastal Nova Scotia received Loyalist settlers, as did Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island (then called St. John’s Island).
Picton, Ontario, unincorporated place, population 4,702 (2016 census), 4,474 (2011 census). Picton is on a peninsula of rolling farmland and sand beaches jutting out into Lake Ontario about 160 km east of Toronto. It is the administration centre for Prince Edward County.
Loyalists were American colonists, of different ethnic backgrounds, who supported the British cause during the American Revolutionary War(1775–83). Tens of thousands of Loyalists migrated to British North America during and after the war. This boosted the population, led to the creation of Upper Canada and New Brunswick, and heavily influenced the politics and culture of what would become Canada.
The Charlottetown Conference set Confederation in motion. It was held from 1–9 September 1864 in Charlottetown, with additional meetings the following week in Halifax, Saint John and Fredericton. The conference was organized by delegates from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island to discuss the union of their three provinces. They were persuaded by a contingent from the Province of Canada, who were not originally on the guest list, to work toward the union of all the British North American colonies. The Charlottetown Conference was followed by the Quebec Conference (10–27 October 1864) and the London Conference (December 1866–March 1867). They culminated in Confederation on 1 July 1867.
Responsible government refers to a government that is responsible to the people. In Canada, responsible government is an executive or Cabinet that depends on the support of an elected assembly, rather than a monarch or their representatives. A responsible government first appeared in Canada in the 1830s. It became an important part of Confederation. It is the method by which Canada achieved independence from Britain without revolution.
