10 districts to watch in P.E.I.'s April 3 provincial election
CBC
We're in the final hours as voters prepare to head to the polls Monday to cast ballots in the next Prince Edward Island provincial election.
With 27 districts, five parties and 119 candidates, there's plenty for Islanders to keep an eye on as results roll in.
Every district is worth watching, to be clear, but we've earmarked nine that were tightly contested in the 2019 vote and one that's a head-to-head battle between two party leaders.
Will the same districts be close races this election? Will the results signal tides of change, or have time and circumstance hardened support for the incumbents?
So let's talk about what we do know: Last time, these nine districts were decided by less than 10 per cent of the popular vote.
When you get within that range, even one or two polls can decide who's heading to the legislature. The parties know this, and a narrow victory in one election often means a more pointed strategy by other parties next time around.
The 10 districts are described below, with candidates sorted alphabetically by last name.
WATCH | As an added bonus, here are Paul MacNeill's picks for the 2023 provincial election
Islanders may remember this as the coin-flip district. Yes, a coin toss decided who won after a tie just eight years ago.
Historically the PCs have held District 5 three times and the Liberals three times, with the Greens gaining it in 2019. Incumbent Green Michele Beaton won in 2019 with 1,152 votes (38.1 per cent) over PC Mary Ellen McInnis's 943 votes (30.9 per cent).
Randy Cooper and the Liberals placed an extremely narrow third with 902 votes (29.8 per cent) with the NDP's Lawrence Millar claiming 38 votes (1.3 per cent).
Does it get anymore hotly contested than an actual tie and elections regularly won by a margin of less than 10 per cent?
Here is who's running this time:
Although this district was newly redrawn in 2019, the region has always elected a candidate in the caucus of the winning party. Meaning, this is the only district on P.E.I. that can be considered a true bellwether.
Premier Susan Holt says she doesn’t have an explanation for why regulators, policy experts and others responsible for gas price regulation didn’t clue in to a simple way to lower prices for consumers until the end of 2025.
The new year will be bringing with it Toronto’s first traffic czar.
For the first time in 111 years, items once belonging to the late Albert Mullins were back in the hands of his family members thanks to the detective work of one Montreal historian.
The year that saw the remains of two First Nations women brought home from a Manitoba landfill and a search get underway for the remains of a third showed how far reconciliation efforts have come — and how far they still need to go, the families say
The RCMP has just released a warning stating there are dangerous, armed individuals on Big Island Cree Nation, near Meadow Lake.
A new land-use plan that Alberta’s government has for the province’s Upper Smoky region is drawing criticism from environmentalists who say they believe it lacks sufficient environmental safeguards, which poses a significant threat to the endangered southern woodland caribou.
Canadian officials made pains to show they were cracking down on illicit drug production in the country in 2025.
A year after the City of Hamilton cancelled its overnight warming bus, it is funding a new all-night warming centre for men at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church on James Street S.
This year has, without a doubt, been a turbulent one for the Canadian auto industry. Uncertainty dominated the sector — both for auto workers hit with job changes and companies trying to manage a mix of tariffs and changing market conditions.
A woman died at a ski resort in the Canadian Rockies over the weekend, after falling into deep snow.
Two pregnant women who would otherwise be living in a cold tent. A man whose leg wound was so bad it required intravenous medication. Two young people who no longer need to couch surf to get by.
The province has added 12 kilometres of designated trails for all-terrain vehicles in western Prince Edward Island that will connect existing routes in O’Leary and Tignish.
Every year, CBC North publishes hundreds of stories online — breaking news, investigative reporting, political coverage, community features, longform storytelling, and much more.