PEIs Best Premier - the early years

The poll for PEIs best premier is now online at Demochoice.org - go here to vote. The balloting will continue until next Monday afternoon, when I get into Toronto, probably around 2:00 EST.

As CG notes, the first round will be a STV ballot to reduce the list of a dozen premiers down to six. Sounds strange for someone who's working to bring in MMP in Ontario, but I'm an electoral reform advocate above all. I'd support MMP, STV or any other crazy electoral system a representative group of average folks select. Anything other than our outdated, undemocratic first-past-the-post system.

Once the top six are selected, we'll go to a CFL style 6-premier showdown, with the top two vote getters getting byes into the semi-finals. Any ties will be broken by me, because I'm the boss here!

I’ve decided to go through the list of Premiers chronologically. I’ll break down the twelve contenders for the title in groups of four. First, the best of the Island’s premiers from the first part of its history:

James Colledge Pope - wiki/gov.pe.ca

Pope gets the nod for being Premier when PEI entered Confederation, although he had served as Premier twice while the Island was still a British colony. A Conservative, Pope gets bonus points for leading the colonial government that started the ill-fated PEI railway that forced the nearly-bankrupt colony to join Confederation.

Ironically, it was the Liberals who negotiated PEIs way into Confederation, but subsequently lost an election to Pope’s Tories just before that fateful day – July 1, 1973. Subsequently, Pope bolted for the House of Commons three months after PEI became Canada’s seventh province. He bounced back and forth between the House and Province House in Charlottetown, serving as Minister of Fisheries in the former for a period of 4 years.

Louis Henry Davies - wiki/gov.pe.ca

PEIs first post-Confederation Liberal premier, Davies defeated Pope’s successor Lemuel Cambridge Owen (best name for an Island premier by far!) in 1876. His three-year administration, a shaky coalition of with some Tories, managed to bring in a public secular school system and reform the civil service (not very successfully we’ll see) before being defeated in the legislature three years later.

Davies left for Ottawa in 1882 and served as Minister of Fisheries for Laurier (another pattern), until he left for the Supreme Court in 1901 – the first and only Islander to serve on that body. The only Rt. Hon. Among the bunch he became Chief Justice in 1916, holding the position until his death eight years later.

Aubin-Edmond Arsenault - wiki/gov.pe.ca

The only Acadian to occupy the Premier’s office and the first to lead a Cabinet in Canadian history, Arsenault succeeded John A. Mathieson as Conservative leader and Premier in 1917, after nine years in the Legislative Assembly. Defeated by the Liberals two years later, he did make on legal reform that would dramatically impact Island culture for years to come – repealing legislation that limited Islanders’ car driving to certain days and roads.

James David Stewart - wiki/gov.pe.ca

Stewart became Premier in 1923 when he defeated John Howatt Bell’s Liberals. He would lose his post in 1927 for being – god forbid! – unwilling to bring in complete prohibition. Tenaciously he stuck around for another term as Leader of the Opposition and became Premier for a second time in 1931. He would press Ottawa for a better deal to help the Island deal with the Depression, but the job took a toll on his health and he would die two years later.

So in the first group, we’ve got two historical firsts, the Island’s only Supreme Court Justice and two-term premier who was killed by the job. Don’t let anyone tell you that being Premier of the Garden in the Gulf is easy!

I think I’m leaning towards the accomplished Davies and Stewart as my favorites in this bunch. If you’ve got an idea on your preferences, go vote here.