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Grounding P.E.I. politicians: Habitat for Humanity gets help planting trees

Some P.E.I. politicians, including Premier Dennis King, got their hands dirty Saturday morning, helping an Island organization plant trees.

3 P.E.I. political leaders spend Saturday morning planting trees

Tony Davis · CBC News ·
The leaders of three P.E.I. politcial parties showed up Saturday morning to help Habitat for Humaity P.E.I. plant trees. From left are P.E.I. Premier Dennis King, NDP Leader Joe Byrne and Official Opposition Leader Peter Bevan-Baker. (Jamie MacKay)

Some P.E.I. politicians got their hands dirty Saturday morning, helping an Island organization plant trees.

Jamie MacKay is building three houses in Harrington, P.E.I., for Habitat for Humanity.

In order to build the homes he had to remove about 40 trees. The construction manager for the organization wanted to replace them.

Habitat for Humanity P.E.I. is a non-profit organization with a mission to provide affordable home ownership to Island families of limited income.

MacKay said he thought it would be nice to run a strip of trees down each property line, so he approached the province and was approved for the trees. But he still needed some help.

He sent off an email to a number of P.E.I. politicians, including Premier Dennis King.

"Every one of them came back and thought it was a wonderful idea," said MacKay, who was surprised to get the response because he knows all of the politicians have busy schedules.

Jamie MacKay, left, poses with Byrne, King and Bevan-Baker. (Jamie MacKay)

Originally, the planting was to take place at the end of June. MacKay said at that time he was expecting 80 per cent of all Island MLAs.

Some politicians had to drop out

When it was rescheduled to Saturday, some politicians had to drop out, MacKay said.

"Some of them still found time to come out, including three of the party leaders."

Planting started at around 9 a.m. and within two hours more than 100 white spruce trees were planted, MacKay said.

"It was just a lot of fun, everybody had a great time."

He said the project is important because it is supporting housing, adding there was no real incentive for politicians besides wanting to help.

"Everybody just came out and got dirty," he said.

Green MLA Lynne Lund takes a quick break from planting trees to snap a selfie. (Lynne Lund)

Green MLA Lynne Lund was one of the first people MacKay approached.

"Habitat for Humanity is a fantastic organization. I know a number of people who have been involved with them over the years."

She said when she was asked to help plant trees she didn't have to think twice because the work is important.

"It was a really great day to be out with the Official Opposition and the governing party working together on an issue that matters to both of us."

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tony Davis

Tony Davis is a video journalist with a focus on municipal government, housing and addiction for CBC Prince Edward Island. He produces content for radio, digital and television. He grew up on P.E.I. and studied journalism at Holland College. You can email story ideas to anthony.davis@cbc.ca.

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