Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island

Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island Assemblée législative de l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard
67th General Assembly of Prince Edward Island
Type
Type	Unicameral house of the General Assembly of Prince Edward Island
History
Founded	1893 (1893)
Preceded by	Bicameral: - Legislative Council - House of Assembly
Leadership
Speaker	Darlene Compton, Progressive Conservative since 23 May 2023
Premier	Dennis King, Progressive Conservative
Leader of the Official Opposition	Hal Perry, Liberal
Structure
Seats	27
Political groups	Government   Progressive Conservative (21) Official Opposition   Liberal (3) Other parties   Green (3)
Elections
Last election	April 3, 2023
Next election	On or before October 4, 2027
Meeting place
Province House, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada (Meeting at the adjacent Hon. George Coles Building during restoration)
Website
www.assembly.pe.ca

The Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island (French: Assemblée législative de l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard) together with the lieutenant governor of Prince Edward Island form the General Assembly of Prince Edward Island.^[1] The Legislative Assembly meets at Province House, which is at the intersection of Richmond and Great George Streets in Charlottetown. Bills passed by the Assembly are given royal assent by the lieutenant governor in the name of the King of Canada.^[2]

As a colony, Prince Edward Island originally had a bicameral legislature founded in 1773 with the Legislative Council of Prince Edward Island serving as the upper house and the House of Assembly as the lower house. Together they composed the 1st General Assembly of the Island of Saint John. After the name of the colony changed in 1798, the body became known as the General Assembly of Prince Edward Island.

In 1769, a British Order in Council established a new government on the British colony of St. John's Island (present day P.E.I.). In 1770, Lieutenant Governor Walter Patterson (the island's first Governor) arrived and appointed a Council to assist him in the administration of the island. By 1773, at the insistence of the British government, Governor Patterson summoned the island's first assembly.

Elections for the island's first House of Assembly were held on July 4, 1773, with 18 members being elected. Tradition has it that the first session of the island's new assembly was held in the Crossed Keys Tavern on the corner of Queen and Dorchester Streets in Charlottetown; however, a journal entry contradicts this and indicates that it was actually held in the home of James Richardson.

In 1839, an important distinction was drawn between the executive and legislative capacities of the Legislative Council. This distinction proved to be an important step on the road to responsible government which was finally implemented in 1851.

Prior to 1893, Prince Edward Island had a bicameral system of government, consisting of a Legislative Council and a House of Assembly. These two bodies were amalgamated in 1893 to create one Legislative Assembly consisting of 30 members elected from 15 different constituencies. Each constituency returned a Councillor and an Assemblyman to the Assembly. The only change to this system of returning members to the assembly was the addition of two Members resulting from the creation of 6th Queens in 1966. In 1996, the system and the electoral map were restructured, and the province now has twenty-seven Members of the Legislative Assembly, each elected from a different constituency.

In 2015, Province House was closed for repairs and conservation work. The legislature moved to the adjacent Hon. George Coles Building, where it is expected to remain for several years.^[3]

The Legislative Assembly currently has 27 single-member districts and is currently the smallest provincial assembly in Canada.

Prior to the 1996 provincial election, the province was divided into 16 dual-member districts, each of which was represented by one member who held the title Assemblyman and one member who held the title Councillor. This was a holdover from the legislature's historic bicameral structure; instead of simply abolishing its upper house as most Canadian provinces with historically bicameral legislatures did, Prince Edward Island merged the two houses in 1893. Although both members sat in the same legislative house, all voters in a district voted for the assemblyman while only landowners could vote for the councillor.^[4] Excepting the division of 5th Queens, the district that contained the capital city of Charlottetown, into two districts in 1966, these district boundaries were never adjusted for demographic or population changes.

The property qualification was discontinued in 1963, largely eliminating any practical distinction between the two roles, although the nominal titles continued to be used until the current single-member districts were introduced in 1996.^[4]

Cabinet ministers are in bold, party leaders are in italic, and the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly is designated by a dagger (†).

Current as of February 2024^[5]

The legislature Black Rod has been carried by the Sergeant-at-Arms since 2000.^[7]

• List of Prince Edward Island General Assemblies

• The Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island, official website
• Canadian Governments Compared