1989 Prince Edward Island general election

The 1989 Prince Edward Island general election was held on May 29, 1989.[1]

1989 Prince Edward Island general election

May 29, 1989
All 32 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island 17 seats needed for a majority
PC Leader Joe Ghiz Mel Gass Party Liberal Progressive Conservative Leader since October 24, 1981 June 11, 1988 Leader's seat 6th Queens Ran in 2nd Queens (lost) Last election 21 seats, 50.3% 11 seats, 45.5% Seats won 30 2 Seat change 9 9 Popular vote 85,982 50,731 Percentage 60.7% 35.8% Swing 10.4pp 9.7pp
Seats won by each party per district. Voters elect two members (one Councillor and Assemblyman) from each of the 16 districts.
Premier before election Joe Ghiz Liberal Premier after election Joe Ghiz Liberal

The campaign resulted in the re-election of the Liberal government of Premier Joe Ghiz. In this election, the Liberals won 60.7% of the popular vote, the highest percentage that a winning party has taken on record in Prince Edward Island. The Progressive Conservatives were able to win 2 seats despite taking their lowest share of the vote ever, 35.8%. Only 5 times has the Opposition had 2 or fewer seats in the history of Prince Edward Island; this was one of them.

Party standings

↓

30	2
Liberal	PC

Party		Party Leader	Seats			Popular Vote
			1986	Elected	Change	#	%	Change
	Liberal	Joe Ghiz	21	30	+9	85,982	60.7%	+10.4%
	Progressive Conservative	Mel Gass	11	2	-9	50,731	35.8%	-9.7%
	New Democratic	Jim Mayne	0	0	-	4,902	3.5%	-0.5%

Popular vote Liberal   60.72% PC   35.82% New Democratic   3.46%

Seats summary Liberal   93.75% PC   6.25%

Members elected

The Legislature of Prince Edward Island had two levels of membership from 1893 to 1996 - Assemblymen and Councillors. This was a holdover from when the Island had a bicameral legislature, the General Assembly and the Legislative Council.

In 1893, the Legislative Council was abolished and had its membership merged with the Assembly, though the two titles remained separate and were elected by different electoral franchises. Assembleymen were elected by all eligible voters of within a district. Before 1963, Councillors were only elected by landowners within a district, but afterward they were elected in the same manner as Assemblymen.[2]

Kings

District	Assemblyman		Party	Councillor		Party
1st Kings		Ross "Johnny" Young	Liberal		Albert Fogarty	Progressive Conservative
2nd Kings		Claude Matheson	Liberal		Walter Bradley	Liberal
3rd Kings		Peter Doucette	Liberal		Roberta Hubley	Liberal
4th Kings		Stanley Bruce	Liberal		Gilbert R. Clements	Liberal
5th Kings		Rose Marie MacDonald	Liberal		Barry Hicken	Liberal

Prince

District	Assemblyman		Party	Councillor		Party
1st Prince		Robert Morrissey	Liberal		Robert E. Campbell	Liberal
2nd Prince		Keith Milligan	Liberal		Allison Ellis	Liberal
3rd Prince		Léonce Bernard	Liberal		Edward Clark	Liberal
4th Prince		Stavert Huestis	Liberal		Libbe Hubley	Liberal
5th Prince		Walter McEwen	Liberal		Nancy Guptill	Liberal

Queens

District	Assemblyman		Party	Councillor		Party
1st Queens		Marion Murphy	Liberal		Leone Bagnall	Progressive Conservative
2nd Queens		Gordon MacInnis	Liberal		Ron MacKinley	Liberal
3rd Queens		Betty Jean Brown	Liberal		Tom Dunphy	Liberal
4th Queens		Alan Buchanan	Liberal		Lynwood MacPherson	Liberal
5th Queens		Wayne Cheverie	Liberal		Tim Carroll	Liberal
6th Queens		Joseph Atallah Ghiz	Liberal		Paul Connolly	Liberal

Sources

1. "Provincial General Election Results, 1989" (PDF). Elections PEI. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2015-05-25.
2. Fred Driscoll. "History and Politics of Prince Edward Island" (PDF). Canadian Parliamentary Review.