Political parties in Prince Edward Island are scrambling to organize for a provincial byelection in Charlottetown, despite the fact it has yet to be called.
Three candidates for party nominations were announced Tuesday – two by the governing Liberal party and one by the Green party of P.E.I.
More are expected in the coming days from the Progressive Conservative party and NDP.
This sudden onset of byelection fever was sparked by the P.E.I. Liberal party when it announced late Monday it would hold its nomination meeting to choose a Liberal candidate for District 11 Charlottetown-Parkdale on Monday, Oct. 30.
That’s less than a week for interested candidates to come forward, gather signatures, build support and organize their life and employment to allow them to focus on campaigning for the nomination and, potentially, a seat in the P.E.I. legislature.
Liberal party president Scott Barry acknowledged this timeline is narrow but said organizers felt there was no reason to delay, as the party was organized and ready to go.
“Everyone was onside with trying to do it as soon as possible,” Barry said.
“We were very fortunate to have very high-quality people immediately express interest.”
He noted the Liberal constitution is silent regarding timelines for nominations and that district associations can hold them “whenever they see fit, if there’s a vacancy.”
He refuted any suggestion the party had an inside track this vacancy would be forthcoming or that the party was handpicking candidates.
“I had absolutely no advance knowledge, I was very surprised by it,” Barry said.
Progressive Conservative Leader James Aylward says he is disappointed to see the Liberals accelerating their nomination process, which, in turn, is forcing all other political parties follow suit to ensure they remain competitive for the seat.
Running for office is a major commitment that requires a great deal of organization and reflection, Aylward said.
“By doing this in such a short time frame, it really limits the potential pool of candidates that would like to put their name forward for Islanders.”
Green Leader Peter Bevan-Baker echoed this concern, saying he spoke with two interested individuals this week who cannot run for the Green party nomination on account of the rushed timeline.
“It limits democracy, is what it does, and that’s disappointing,” Bevan-Baker said.
At a glance
To date, three people have already announced their intention to run for the open seat in District 11, Charlottetown-Parkdale, including:
For the Liberals:
- Marcia Carroll, senior staff at the P.E.I. Council of People with Disabilities
- Bob Doiron, Charlottetown city councillor
For the Green party:
- Karla Bernard, Charlottetown teacher and green party education critic
Although the MacLauchlan government has six months to call a byelection, Bevan-Baker and others are convinced it will be called within the next month, and party workers of all colours are ensuring they are ready to hit the ground running when the writ is dropped.
The Green party announced Tuesday it approved an “expedited nomination process” to select its candidate for the district, inviting any member in good standing to apply for the nomination by Friday. The Greens will choose their candidate on the same evening as the Liberals, Monday, Oct. 30.
The PC party will announce details of its nomination process Wednesday following a meeting of the executive Tuesday evening. The PC party constitution does have imposed timelines for nominations, but a provision was added in recent years to compress them if need be.
Despite accelerated timelines, all parties say they have high-quality candidates interested in replacing Doug Currie in District 11 and are ready to mount highly competitive campaigns to capture this open seat.
“I think it’s going to be a really hotly contested byelection,” Bevan-Baker said.
“It means so much to every party for very different reasons – we would love to double our representation in the house, for the Conservatives it’s really important for them and for James (Aylward) to assert himself as a leader and to be shown to be successful immediately out of the gate and for the Liberals, they won with 43 per cent of the vote (in 2015) and have held that seat for a long time. So it means a lot to every single party and I expect a pretty exciting campaign.”
