PEI Election: Greens Breakthrough

Canada News & Analysis Politics Provinces & Territories

PEI’s April election turfed out the Liberals after three consecutive terms. The economy is booming but ordinary people haven’t benefited.

The housing crisis has pushed the apartment vacancy rate to virtually zero, the lowest of any Canadian city. Rents are rising rapidly and new developments overwhelmingly expensive. Housing prices have increased by a third between 2015 and 2018. Meanwhile wages remain stagnant.

The Liberals campaign slogan, “PEI is working. Let’s keep working,” was totally out of touch. The Liberals dropped from sixteen seats to only six. The Conservatives continued the trend of the last five elections of losing popular support. But with twelve seats they have formed a minority government.

The Greens were the big winners, growing to eight seats and becoming the official opposition. Their campaign had plenty of enthusiasm with many young activists joining them. While this may boost the Greens across Canada, they are unlikely to offer serious opposition to the Tories.

Apart from some action on Airbnbs, their housing platform is a gift to developers. Their proposed minimum wage increases were in line with the Liberals and their environmental policies are hardly radical – reinforcing the carbon tax, and loans and incentives for electric cars and solar panels.

None of the major parties offer solutions. Instead, ordinary people, rooted in trade unions and community organizations, should build a grassroots movement that would fight for real solutions including serious investments in public housing and renewable energy that would provide jobs and solve the rental crisis. This might seem far-fetched but expecting people to accept more of the same is ludicrous.