Liberals poised to form Official Opposition as Greens lose all but 2 seats

Dennis King will return for a second term as premier of Prince Edward Island after his Progressive Conservatives won 22 seats for a commanding victory in the 2023 provincial election.

The Liberals won three seats and will form the Official Opposition, while the Greens fell to third-party status with just two MLAs.

Voter turnout was a record low of 68.5 per cent of the province’s roughly 109,587 registered voters, according to Elections P.E.I.

That’s down from the 77.66 per cent seen in 2019, which represented the most votes ever cast in Island history at 83,185, and a sharp drop from the more than 80 per cent turnout that has historically defined Prince Edward Island as a model of political engagement among Canadian provinces.

• INTERACTIVE: Live election results from CBC News

The PCs saw considerable vote gains across the province with around 55.9 per cent of the popular vote. That was roughly 19 points more than their share in the 2019 election, and is reminiscent of the PCs’ win in 2000, when then-premier Pat Binns led the party to a strong majority with 58 per cent of the vote.

The largest gains for the party came in the cities of Summerside and Charlottetown, where the popular vote grow by more than 27 percentage points and 19 percentage points respectively.

“We are so excited. This is such a great night for us,” said King’s sister Toby Murphy, celebrating with other supporters at PC headquarters at Harmony House in Hunter River .

“Dennis has always said we’re a really close-knit family and we’ve worked really hard up to this point, knocking on doors, pounding the pavement — and we couldn’t be prouder of him tonight.”

Green leader speaks of ‘difficult night’

District 17: New Haven-Rocky Point was one of the races to watch as the votes started to come in.

Throughout the evening it seesawed between PC candidate Donalda Docherty and Green Leader Peter Bevan-Baker, before the Green leader was finally projected to win shortly after 8:30 p.m.

The victory was bittersweet. Only he and Karla Bernard will return to the legislature as other Green incumbents fell. Back in 2019, Bevan-Baker’s party formed the Official Opposition with eight seats, the first provincial Green caucus in Canada to do so.

The Greens saw their popular vote share drop to about 21.6 per cent (16,134 votes) compared to the party’s 30.6 per cent in 2019 (25,302 votes).

Bevan-Baker spoke to reporters after embracing his family and hugging his baby grandson Freddy.

“This is a difficult night for us — and let’s not pretend otherwise,” he said. “I’m most sad about losing some tremendous colleagues with whom I’ve worked over the last four years.

“Sad for them, sad for their constituents, sad for the legislature … I will miss them tremendously.”

Bevan-Baker said he was proud of everything his party had accomplished over the last term. He said the PCs will face some of the biggest issues in the Island’s history, such as a collapsing health-care system and a crushing housing crisis.

And he said the Greens will “be there every step of the way, holding [King’s] feet to the fire, because Islanders cannot afford another four years of inaction.”

On whether he’d stay on as leader, Bevan-Baker said he will be thinking about his future and will have news to share about that in the “near future.”

Liberals back as number 2, though leader has no seat

Liberal Leader Sharon Cameron spoke to the media and her supporters around 9:25 p.m., saying she’s happy the party is back as Official Opposition, though it dropped from four seats to three and saw its vote share settle at 17.2 per cent (12,876 votes), compared to 29.4 per cent in 2019 (24,346).

“To each and every one of you and from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much. It’s fair to say this is not the night we hoped for when the campaign began,” she said.

“But going into this election, we all knew it was going to be really, really hard. And you know what? That didn’t stop a wonderful slate of candidates and hundreds of Islanders from working so hard on our Liberal campaign and putting health care first.

“I hope to God the PCs use our platform. I hope to God.”

Cameron said it was a highlight of her life to be at the helm of the Liberal campaign in 2023, adding that she was proud of the 25 candidates the Liberals put forward across P.E.I.’s 27 districts.

She congratulated Hal Perry, Gord McNeilly and Robert Henderson on their re-election, to a room of applause.

“And guess what guys? You’re now Official Opposition,” she said with a laugh. “That’s awesome. I wish you well as you lead our province in the coming years.”

Cameron said it was a very disappointing night overall, but in four months since she’s been leader the party managed to rebuild significantly, improved finances and more.

She didn’t make a decision Monday evening regarding her future as party leader, but said she was “going to be a pain in the ass” in some form to hold the PCs accountable in government.

PCs’ popular vote share near 56%

King and members of his cabinet were the first to pick up their districts. King won in District 15: Brackley-Hunter River, and Matthew MacKay was the first to be projected as elected, running away with the vote in District 20: Kensington-Malpeque.

Other PC cabinet ministers Natalie Jameson, Steven Myers, Cory Deagle, Bloyce Thompson, Darlene Compton, Jamie Fox and Ernie Hudson were also re-elected.

Some of the projected PC gains came at the expense of the Green Party, which placed second in 18 districts.

The Progressive Conservatives flipped several districts including:

• District 5: Mermaid-Stratford, which was Green MLA Michele Beaton’s seat.
• District 11: Charlottetown-Belvedere, formerly Green MLA Hannah Bell’s seat.
• District 13: Charlottetown-Brighton, which was held by Ole Hammarlund, who didn’t win his own party’s nomination race.
• District 21: Summerside-Wilmot, which had belonged to Green MLA Lynne Lund.
• District 22: Summerside-South Drive, which was occupied by Green MLA Steve Howard.
• District 23: Tyne Valley-Sherbrooke, which was Green MLA Trish Altass’s seat.

The PCs also won in District 24: Evangeline-Miscouche, which had belonged to Liberal Sonny Gallant. Gallant was a former interim leader of the Liberals who chose not to re-offer.

When the P.E.I. legislature was dissolved in early March, the Progressive Conservatives had 15 seats; the Greens had eight; the Liberals had four seats; and the NDP and Island Party had none.

Concession from NDP Leader

NDP Leader Michelle Neill spoke to her supporters at 8:20 p.m., shortly after she was projected to lose personally in District 13: Charlottetown-Brighton, and her party was projected to be shut out of the legislature once more.

“You all inspire me,” she told supporters, saying she had just called the leaders of the other parties to thank them for a well-run campaign. “We are a party of everyday people trying to make life better for Islanders.”

She went on to promise the government “won’t get a pass” because the NDP has no members in the legislature.

“Even if we’re not in the legislature, that doesn’t mean our voice won’t be heard,” Neill said.