Leaders get down to business as P.E.I. election campaign kicks off
CBC
Candidates in the April 3 provincial election officially kicked off their campaigns on Tuesday.
Election signs were put up across the province, and party candidates began knocking on doors making their pitches to voters.
The Progressive Conservatives have a full slate of candidates, while the Greens, Liberals and NDP still have some districts to fill.
The day after the election call, PC Leader Dennis King visited five different districts and made a health-care announcement in Summerside.
Liberal Leader Sharon Cameron and Green Party Leader Peter Bevan-Baker were out and about in District 17, New Haven-Rocky Point, where they are running against each other.
Bevan Baker said he's excited about the next four weeks.
"I often take time in a morning or an afternoon and go round my district, pick an area and go speak to people. So I will continue that process, as will all of the other candidates that we have nominated now. So I don't think the shortness of the campaign is going to make it particularly more difficult for us."
Bevan-Baker said the Greens would announce three more candidate nominations Tuesday evening.
Cameron said the PC government has disappointed Islanders by failing to reopen the legislature and discuss the ongoing issues in health care. She said the election call Monday night shows where the party's priorities lie.
But she said the Green Party has also failed Islanders.
"We can't point all the fingers at the King government because we also have an opposition that acted like project managers, basically, and didn't do their opposition job and without good opposition you can't have good government."
Cameron said if elected, she would take over the health portfolio for the government and take action to address health-care staffing numbers.
King called the election six months before the fixed election date in October. He said he didn't want to overlap with a potential federal election in the fall.
"It's four years, it's time to have an election," he said. "There's uncertainty in the future and Islanders should have a say in that."