Winds of Politics on PEI

We do not have political parties in PEI. We have people and principles. This election was going to be a close one, and I knew that my supporters were on edge. They wanted to know how I felt about everything from the Kinder Morgan pipeline to the latest Supreme Court nomination. My opponents were trying to paint me as a flip flopper who could not be trusted.

"You can't change your mind every time you see something on the news," said Susan, my opponent. "People want commitment."

"You can't be too committed to principles that are wrong," I replied. "We need to be flexible if we're going to meet the needs of the modern world."

This was a back and forth we had had many times before, but it was always with good humor. Each of us knew where the other stood, but we also understood that there were some places where we disagreed and others where we agreed. Susan's husband, Jim, put it best when he said "We're all friends here, but we're not all friends with each other."

After Senator Angus died last year, there was an open seat in his district that needed to be filled by election. The immediate concern for most of us was who would take over Angus' position as Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries? The Minister has a lot of power in PEI, so it was important for us to find someone worthy of the position. After much consideration we decided on Susan to fill this role because her family had been farming in PEI for generations. But she is such a busy woman now, I've never seen her without her phone in her hand or her iPad in front of her face! She really is everywhere at once! Fortunately Jim is there to help run their farm while she does all this other stuff. It's nice to see young people taking up the torch for our small communities across the Island, I know what hard work farming is! I grew up running around my family's farm and we only had sheep! Imagine having cows as well! Good luck Jim! You're going to need it!

After filling that position there seemed to be a bit of a lull in activity at first, then word got out that there might be an opening for Minister of Justice after Mr. Bourne retired last winter. There were many people interested in that job but when the dust settled we decided on Andrew Thompson from Montague because he has so many years of experience at Queen's University law school and is more than qualified for the job! His daughter Katie has joined him now that she finished school at UPEI so you can bet they are both hard at work making sure they keep our province safe!

With those positions filled it seemed like things might slow down again until word came out of Charlottetown last fall that Ms Julie Rogers had made some racially insensitive remarks concerning new immigrants coming into Prince Edward Island and so she resigned from cabinet (she was already planning on retiring soon). Of course when we heard about this there was no question that someone from our area should take over her spot as Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development so we offered it to our own Kevin Bevan from Souris West who jumped at the chance! He has been an amazing MLA for a long time now and he really knows his stuff when it comes to education policy so you can bet he is doing a great job helping us bring more teachers into our public schools! So if you haven't met him yet make sure you get out and vote for him this week!

So with those positions filled there didn't seem like anything else interesting might happen until just recently when Mr Harper announced his intention to step down as Prime Minister which meant that all members of his cabinet would need re-election across Canada including our own MP Rob Lantz here in Prince County North Atlantic! Now obviously this wasn't exactly unexpected as Mr Harper has already served two terms but knowing what kind of political machine Stephen Harper is capable of running makes this election even more interesting than ever before! He'll stop at nothing between now and Monday night to get his candidates re-elected across Canada including right here in Prince Edward Island where our own incumbent MP Rob Lantz was elected by an even larger margin than Mr Harper himself with 68% of the popular vote over his closest rival David Dunfield who received 32% support, so you can bet he will fight tooth and nail against anyone who tries to unseat him including Peter Bevan-Baker who has stepped forward as his main opponent in this race! Peter has lived on Piggott Road deep in Souris West since he moved there from Ontario back in 1990 when he graduated from Queen's University along with his wife Mary Ellen where they ran their bed & breakfast together before Mary Ellen passed away suddenly three years ago leaving him alone with their son Bryan who lives with him still today while they operate another B&B on Wellman Road down near Summerside, but it seems like he is trying hard to make a name for himself by running against Rob Lantz like this so let's see how it goes between these two men who have lived side by side for decades without knowing anything about each other beyond their physical proximity, but if it gets ugly don't worry because everyone else will be standing by ready to offer their support according