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This article is about a Canadian province. For the South African sub-antarctic islands, see Prince Edward Islands
Prince Edward Island (PEI; French, l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard) is a Canadian province situated in the Maritimes. It is the nation's smallest province in terms of both size and population; it has the highest population density of all Canadian provinces, yet this is only 24.47/km².
The population is 137,800 Prince Edward Islanders (or colloquially just "Islanders").
It is located in a rectangle defined roughly by 46°–47° N, and 62°–64° 30′ W.
Geography
The province comprises the island of the same name located in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, northeast of New Brunswick and north of Nova Scotia from which it is separated by the Northumberland Strait. The strait was recently spanned by Confederation Bridge.
The capital and largest city is Charlottetown, situated centrally on the island's southern shore. (See also a list of communities in Prince Edward Island.) Summerside is the second largest city and is located in Prince County, in the western part of the province. Stratford, and Cornwall, the third and fourth largest communities are located immediately east and west of Charlottetown respectively, placing more than a third of the province's population within the capital region.
The island's landscape has been heavily impacted by humans since being discovered by European explorers in the 16th century. Today, there is no original forested land on the Island, although approximately half of the landmass is covered by forest. Virtually the entire province is dominated by agriculture, resulting from the ease of farming in the distinctive red sedimentary soil. The island's pastoral landscape has a strong bearing on its economy and culture as author Lucy Maud Montgomery drew inspiration from it during the late Victorian Era for the setting of Anne of Green Gables. Today, many of the same qualities Montgomery and others found in the Island are enjoyed by millions of tourists who visit in all seasons for a variety of leisure activities ranging from world-reknowned beaches, various golf courses, eco-tourism adventures, to touring the countryside and enjoying cultural events in local communities.
History
The island is also referred to as Abegweit, this name being derived from the Mi'kmaq word for Prince Edward Island, Epekwit'k, meaning "cradled (or cradle) on the waves."
As a French colony comprising part of Acadia, the island was called Île Saint-Jean. Roughly 1,000 Acadians on the island, many having already fled a British-ordered expulsion in the mainland British colony of Nova Scotia in 1755, were subsequently deported in 1758 when the British seized Île Saint-Jean during the Seven Years' War.
The new British colony of St. John's Island was virtually empty following the cessation of hostilities, save a British garrison. To attract settlers without draining the British treasury, "Captain Samuel Holland, of the Royal Engineers, sent a proposal to the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantation, proposing that a scientific survey be done to encourage land settlement and the fishery in British North America, particularly in the areas recently ceded by France."[1] (http://collections.ic.gc.ca/westpei/samuel_holland.htm)
The survey was carried out between 1764-1766 whereby three roughly 500,000 acre (2,000 km²) counties were created, each of which was further subdivided into 100,000 acre (400 km²) parishes. Each county received a county seat (called "royalties"), and the remaining countryside was divided into 67 townships (called "lots") averaging 20,000 acres (80 km²) in area which were promptly auctioned to British nobility.
The owners of the lots were expected to recruit settlers and finance their transportation to the island, whereby settlers were required to clear a certain amount of forest for farmland and pay annual "quitrents" to their landlords. Similar feudal systems were used in other British and European colonies, but few caused as much controversy, given peasant farmer uprisings over the following century against the actions of absentee landlords.
In 1798, Great Britain changed the colony's name from St. John's Island to Prince Edward Island to distinguish it from similar names in the Atlantic area, such as the cities of Saint John and St. John's. The colony's new name honoured the fourth son of King George III, Prince Edward Augustus, the Duke of Kent (1767–1820), who was then commanding British troops in Halifax. Prince Edward was also the father of Queen Victoria.
In September 1864, Prince Edward Island hosted the Charlottetown Conference, which was the first meeting in the process leading to the Articles of Confederation and the creation of Canada in 1867. Prince Edward Island did not find the terms of union favourable and together with Newfoundland, balked at joining in 1867. In the late 1860s the colony examined various options including the possibility of becoming an independent dominion, as well as entertaining delegations from the United States interested in joining their political union.
In the early 1870s the colony began construction of a railway, however with mounting construction debts, and under pressure from Great Britain's Colonial Office, negotiations with Canada were reinstated. In 1873, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, anxious to thwart American expansionism and facing the distraction of the Pacific Scandal, conceded to a request that the federal government assume the colony's railway debts, and also agreed to financing a buy-out of the last of the colony's absentee landlords to free the island of leasehold tenure. Another equally important condition was for the federal government to provide "efficient steamship service" to the mainland. Prince Edward Island entered Confederation with little fanfare on July 1, 1873.
At the time of Confederation, Prince Edward Island's Parliamentary representation consisted of 6 seats in the House of Commons and 4 seats in the Senate. Prince Edward Island's population remained stable but western expansion in Canada reduced its proportion of the nation's population. As a result, representation declined to 4 Members of Parliament by the 1910s. In 1915 Prince Edward Island's representation in the House of Commons was about to fall from 4 to 3 when the provincial government argued that since the province had 4 Senators, it could have no less than an equal number of Members of Parliament; Senators being appointed for life at this time, it was very rare for these coveted positions to be vacant for long. The provincial government took the issue to court and won the case, forcing the federal government to create a law mandating that no province can have fewer seats in the House of Commons than it has seats in the Senate.
As a result of having hosted the inaugural meeting of Confederation, the Charlottetown Conference, Prince Edward Island presents itself as the "Birthplace of Confederation" with several buildings, a ferry vessel, and the Confederation Bridge using the term "confederation" in some way. The most prominent building in the province with this name is the Confederation Centre of the Arts, presented as a gift to Prince Edward Islanders by the 10 provincial governments and the federal government in 1964 upon the centenary of the Charlottetown Conference where it stands in Charlottetown as a national monument to the "Fathers of Confederation."
Politics
In the most recent provincial election, Progressive Conservative Premier Pat Binns was returned to power. The province's other major party is the PEI Liberal Party
In 1997 the Confederation Bridge was built, linking PEI with New Brunswick. The building of this bridge was hotly debates by the citizens of the Province, with about half opposing it (fearing the loss of what is called "the island way of life") and the other half wanting the bridge, primarily for convenience for leaving the Island for shopping and other excursions.
Some PEI facts
- The island has several nicknames: "Garden of the Gulf" referring to the pastoral scenery and lush agricultural lands throughout the province; "Million Acre Farm" also refers to the province being dominated by agriculture; and finally "Birthplace of Confederation", referring to the Charlottetown Conference in 1864.
- Until 1924, automobiles drove on the left side of the road.
- The world's fur-farming industry started with fox fur on a farm in Prince County.
- PEI has recently become home to a small population of a unique form of coyote, closely related to wolves, which evolved in neighbouring Maritime provinces.
- Repeal of prohibition was vetoed in 1945 by then Lieutenant Governor B.W. LePage (http://www.gov.pe.ca/lg/gallery/28Lepage.php3).
- There are 31 Canadian cities with a greater population than PEI. 13 are in Ontario alone.
- PEI has extremely strict rules for non-resident land ownership as a legacy of Islanders' distrust in this area from their colonial past. Residents and corporations are limited to maximum holdings of 400 and 1200 hectares (4 and 12 km²) respectively. There are also restrictions on non-resident ownership of shorelines and higher property taxation is in place for recreational properties, the majority of which are owned by non-residents.
- PEI had among the highest per capita enlistment rate in the armed forces of any Canadian province in the volunteer army, navy and air force of the Second World War.
Economy
The provincial economy is dominated by the seasonal industries of agriculture, tourism, and the fishery. The province is extremely limited in terms of natural resources such as minerals, although there are undetermined quantities of natural gas beneath the eastern end of the province.
Agriculture remains the dominant industry in the provincial economy, as it has since colonial times, although potatoes have replaced mixed farming during the 20th century to become the leading cash crop - accounting for one-third of provincial farm income. The province currently accounts for a third of Canada's total potato production; comparatively this is approximately half of the total production for the state of Idaho.
Tourism eclipsed the fishery in the latter half of the 20th century with over a million visitors entering the province each year to use beaches, golf courses, and visit local attractions and events. The high season, as with most Canadian provinces, is during the summer months of July and August, although increased travel by American visitors during September and October for fall foliage tours of the Maritime provinces and neighbouring New England and Newfoundland is pushing the shoulder season farther into the winter months.
The province is less dependent on the ground fishery than the other Atlantic provinces, with fishing being dominated by shellfish harvesting - most notably lobster. There are two separate lobster seasons for different parts of the province, occurring between May-September outside of moulting times. As the province is surrounded by sea ice between December-April, the fishery is entirely seasonal. In recent decades, the provincial government has been encouraging diversification of the fishery by promoting the aquaculture industry, largely through cultivation of mussels.
Map
See also
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