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2 weeks ago | 
peicanada.com | Paul MacNeill
At a $1,000 dinner last week the only two declared candidates for leadership of the PC Party were forced to watch interim premier, turned waffling potential candidate, Rob Lantz, feted during a fireside chat. The candidates were recognized, but the event was a high-profile opportunity for Lantz to use the power and prestige of the premier’s office to grease the wheels toward officially breaking his repeated promise not to seek the premiership on a fulltime basis.
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3 weeks ago | 
peicanada.com | Paul MacNeill
In the dying days of the spring session, the opposition grilled government to release employment contracts for temporary senior management hired by Health PEI via private agencies. Health Minister Mark MacLane deflected, bragged about items not related to the question, and blamed the contracts on former CEO Michael Gardam, with blistering criticism the minister would be unlikely to repeat outside his legal protection of the legislature.
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1 month ago | 
peicanada.com | Paul MacNeill
For a decade Island PCs roamed the political wilderness by prioritizing petty grievances and internal division. Dennis King changed all of that. King rode his unique style of leadership to form an unexpected minority government in 2019. A byelection win in late 2020 gave the PCs a bare majority, followed by a clear majority in 2023. kAmqFE E96 7@C>6C AC6>:6C’D DFCAC:D6 56A2CEFC6 62C=:6C E9:D J62C[ 7@==@H65 :>>65:2E6=J 3J 2 A=F> A2EC@?286 2>32DD25@C:2= 2AA@:?E>6?E =6DD E92?
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1 month ago | 
peicanada.com | Paul MacNeill
For three weeks the Public School Branch claimed there was nothing to connect two complaints of sexual impropriety – a year apart and in different Island schools – against substitute teacher Matthew Craswell. Both complaints were dismissed by the PSB as non-sexual in nature. There was no internal database to connect the complaints. PSB director Tracy Beaulieu said if the branch had connected the two allegations it ‘likely’ would have responded differently.
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1 month ago | 
peicanada.com | Paul MacNeill
Education Minister Robin Croucher stood in the provincial legislature trying desperately to portray a level of public gravitas his cabinet experience has not yet earned. ‘The buck stops with me,’ he said. Except it didn’t stop with Croucher or his predecessors - now Premier Rob Lantz or Natalie Jameson because they were never in the loop. kA 4=2DDlQAbQmx?
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1 month ago | 
peicanada.com | Paul MacNeill
If the federal election taught us anything, it is that leadership matters. Mark Carney is neither slick nor a great orator. But his lack of political baggage and a resume full of world-class credentials was enough to turn Liberal fortunes from decimation to a breath away from a majority government. kA 4=2DDlQAbQm!:6CC6 !@:=:6GC6 :D 2 3C:==:2?E 4@>>F?:42E@C[ H9@ E2AA65 :?E@ E96 2?86C @7 @C5:?2CJ r2?25:2?D E@ 8C@H E96 r@?D6CG2E:G6 D62E 4@F?E 3J a_[ 3FE 96 =@DE 9:D @H? C:5:?8 :?
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2 months ago | 
peicanada.com | Paul MacNeill
What now? After four months of unparalleled shifts in public opinion, Canadians are sorta back to where we began…with a Liberal government in Ottawa. kAmqFE[ @9 >J[ 9@H E9:?8D 92G6 492?865]k^AmkAmx? y2?F2CJ ?@ @?6 – 2?5 x >62? ?@ @?6 – AC65:4E65 E92E 2 r@?D6CG2E:G6 =625 @7 ad A@:?ED H@F=5 6G2A@C2E6 :? 2 >2EE6C @7 H66<D] xE H2D 2 E2<6\:E\E@\E96\32?< 8F2C2?E66 E92E !:6CC6 !@:=:6GC6 H@F=5 364@>6 AC:>6 >:?:DE6C[ A@E6?E:2==J H:E9 2 C64@C5 D6EE:?8 >2;@C:EJj DF49 H2D E96 AF3=:4 2?86C E@H2C5 yFDE:?
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2 months ago | 
peicanada.com | Paul MacNeill
There was a time when PEI’s workforce was built on home grown talent. Nurses, early childhood educators, farm workers, kids pouring a double-double. There were enough bodies to fill the wide swath of jobs required to make a province run. Things have changed dramatically in recent decades. As our population aged, fewer kids were around to do traditional kid jobs in coffee shops, fast food joints or restaurants. There were fewer professionals to teach early childhood education, nurse or build houses.
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2 months ago | 
peicanada.com | Paul MacNeill
The $3.5 billion provincial budget sets a record for government spending; its anticipated record deficit of $184 million will spiral our long-term debt upward with no reversal in sight. But proving once again that all politics is local, Islanders will ignore the big numbers and toast a long-overdue modernization of liquor laws. Sale of booze has always been the sole domain of the PEI Liquor Commission; a patronage driven government monopoly.
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2 months ago | 
peicanada.com | Paul MacNeill
Pierre Poilievre’s PEI visit galvanized hardcore Conservatives who travelled to a Borden manufacturing plant by the busload for a rally that the party pegs attendance at more than 1,700. Where leaders travel often offers a hint of what ridings the party believes it can win. There was a modest gathering in a local Charlottetown bar, giving candidate Natalie Jameson a coveted ‘having a beer with the leader’ photo.
