Premier hints at spring election as P.E.I. PCs kick off nomination season

There may not be a P.E.I. provincial election call yet, but for parties and their candidates, nomination season is now underway.

Thursday night in Summerside marked the first nomination meeting for the governing Progressive Conservatives as city councillor Barb Ramsay got the party nod to run in District 22 Summerside-South Drive.

Roughly 150 people were there, among them local councillors, current and former mayors of Summerside Dan Kutcher and Basil Stewart, provincial cabinet ministers, and former federal Conservative minister and MP Gail Shea.

The district is currently held by Green MLA Steve Howard, who on Thursday afternoon announced his intention to reoffer in the next provincial election.

Ramsay is the first candidate officially nominated in 2023 among the four major parties. Before her was Dr. Herb Dickieson, who earned the NDP nomination in District 25 O'Leary-Inverness last November.

Following Ramsay's nomination will be a flurry of nomination meetings from all parties in the coming weeks.

In the last month alone, about 30 people across the four parties have announced their intention to run, and more are issuing statements by the day. Parties are also using their social media pages to announce nomination dates, many of which are happening soon.

There's been much speculation in recent months about whether King will call a spring election or stick to the fixed election date of Oct. 2, 2023. Three of the last four provincial elections took place in the spring, including the last two in a row (2015 and 2019).

On P.E.I., we have elections every four years. Four years is April, so I think all parties are getting ready.— Premier Dennis King

Premier Dennis King was at the nomination event in Summerside Thursday evening, four years to the day since he'd become the party leader.

He had this to say about the election date: "On P.E.I., we have elections every four years. Four years is April, so I think all parties are getting ready.

"April is a time when we usually have elections on P.E.I., but my job, as I continue to say … is just trying to do what I can to keep P.E.I. moving forward. That's my primary focus. The party is working hard on nominations to be ready so if and when we want to call an election, and need to have an election, we're ready to go."

'Hints are getting louder and clearer'

Green Leader Peter Bevan-Baker said Friday that the party already suspected a spring election might be called, and has been preparing for some time now.

"We all know it's coming," he said. "Hints are getting louder and clearer."

We are getting ready. Districts are fired up. People are very optimistic.— Sharon Cameron

Bevan-Baker said his party's platform is "pretty well complete" and costed. 

Liberal Leader Sharon Cameron, who'll be running against Bevan-Baker in District 17 New Haven-Rocky Point, called out the premier while touting her party's election readiness. 

"We have a premier who repeatedly, over time, committed to the set election date in October and then broke that promise," Cameron said.

"We are getting ready. Districts are fired up. People are very optimistic and there's some winds of change. The energy is shifting a little bit."

'Without knowing the day, that is the challenge'

For Elections P.E.I., an election call means immediately mobilizing the 27 returning offices

"Without knowing the day, that is the challenge," said P.E.I.'s chief electoral officer, Tim Garrity. "We need to book locations, we need to book office spaces for our returning offices."

Once the premier goes to the lieutenant governor to formally ask for the current legislature to be dissolved, the election process is kickstarted. The afternoon or evening that the writs are issued will mean quick moves for Elections P.E.I., Garrity said, as all 27 returning offices will need to be open at 9 a.m. the next morning.

Snap elections bad for diversity?

The executive director of the P.E.I. Coalition for Women in Government, Sweta Daboo, said it's much better for democracy and prospective candidates when premiers abide by fixed election dates.

"We know that snap elections are bad when it comes to attracting a diverse slate of candidates, and just for democracy in general," Daboo said.

"We know that youth, especially, are disadvantaged by this because they need to give notice to their places of employment and take time off without pay to be able to campaign."

PCs 'really excited for it'

As of Friday evening, the PCs had 18 people who had publicly stated their intention to run; the Greens had five; the Liberals had five; and the NDP five.

All candidates must be nominated in their local district first. Most nominations are typically uncontested, as was the case for Ramsay in Summerside.

PC Party president Sydney Gallant said there was a lot of energy in the room that will carry forward to the provincial election. 

"This is really just the beginning of an exciting time for our party in the province," she said.

Many nominations are still to come in the weeks ahead, but Gallant said the PCs have no firm date on when the party wants to have a full slate of 27 fully nominated.

"We're all just really excited for it," she said. "Premier King has made it pretty clear it'll be some time in 2023, so that's what we're operating off of."