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Administrative division of Canada
Also known as Province d’Ile-du-Prince-Edouard
Total area: 5,660 square kilometres (2,185 square miles)
Population:
129,765 (1991)
Maximum
elevation: 142 metres (466 feet)
Prince
Edward Island, one of the three Maritime and
one of the four Atlantic provinces of Canada, bounded on the north, east,
and west by the Gulf of St Lawrence and on the south by Northumberland
Strait (which separates it from Nova Scotia
and New Brunswick).
Prince Edward Island became part of the Canadian Confederation
on July 1, 1873, as the seventh province. Farming is the island's chief
economic activity. The province is named after Edward Augustus, duke of
Kent and Strathern, a son of George III of England.
Land and Resources
Prince
Edward Island, with an area of 5,660 sq km (2,185 sq mi), is the smallest
province of Canada. Its extreme length is about 195 km (120 mi), and its
extreme width is about 65 km (40 mi). The province has a coastline of some
1,260 km (783 mi). Elevations range from sea level to 142 m (465 ft), near
the community of Hunter River.
Physical Geography
All of
Prince Edward Island is part of the Maritime Plain, which also covers parts
of nearby New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The island is situated almost
entirely at a low elevation, and the landscape is generally level to gently
undulating. The province is covered with a thick, mostly stone-free mantle
of glacial deposits. Iron in the underlying rock has given much of the
fertile surface soil a reddish colour. Nearly all the rivers of Prince
Edward Island are tidal; the tidal Hillsborough River almost bisects the
province. No freshwater lakes of significant size occur.
Climate
Prince
Edward Island has a cool, changeable climate. The average July temperature
at Charlottetown is about 18.4° C (65° F), and the average January
temperature in the city is about -6.7° C (20° F). The average annual
precipitation of about 1,120 mm (44 in) is fairly evenly distributed throughout
the year.
Plants and Animals
About one-half
of Prince Edward Island is covered with forest, mostly a mixture of deciduous
and coniferous trees such as sugar maple, yellow birch, red spruce, balsam
fir, hemlock, and white pine. The wildlife of the province is limited.
Small numbers of white-tailed deer and black bear are among the few large
mammals; furbearing animals such as beaver, muskrat, mink, otter, and red
fox also inhabit the island. Many marine animals, notably lobster, oysters,
clams, scallops, cod, and hake, live in coastal waters.
Products and Industries
Prince
Edward Island has a mixed economy in which manufacturing, farming, and
service industries all play a major role. Fishing and tourism are also
significant sources of income.
Prince
Edward Island has much fertile soil, and more than one-quarter of its land
area is used for crops. Table and seed potatoes are the most valuable crop;
considerable quantities of barley, hay, peas, beans, broccoli, Brussels
sprouts, tobacco, and such fruit as strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries
also are produced. Cattle, poultry, and hogs are raised widely, and dairy
products are an important source of income. The province has a very small
forest products industry and little commercial mining activity takes place.
The fish catch is more important to the economy, with lobster accounting
for most of the total income. Other major sources of income are landings
of cod, crab, bluefin tuna, and redfish. Irish moss, an alga used in food
processing, is harvested along the shoreline.
Prince
Edward Island has a small manufacturing sector, with fish and agricultural
products being the most important manufactures.
Population
According
to the 1991 census, Prince Edward Island had 129,765 inhabitants, an increase
of 2.5 per cent over 1986. The overall population density in 1991 was 23
people per sq km (59 per sq mi). English was the sole native language of
about 94 per cent of the people; about 4 per cent had French as their first
language. Approximately 1,100 Native Americans lived in the province.
Education and Cultural Institutions
The first
schools in Prince Edward Island were established in the early 19th century
and a provincial board of education was founded in the 1870s. In the early
1990s the province had 73 elementary and secondary schools with a combined
annual enrolment of about 25,000 students. The only university in the province,
the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown, is attended by
about 2,300 students each year.
The most important cultural institution in Prince
Edward Island is the Confederation Centre of the Arts, opened in 1964 in
Charlottetown, which contains a museum, theatres, the city's major library,
and art galleries. Other museums in the province include the Musée
Acadien in Miscouche.
Places of Interest
Fort Amherst
National Historic Site, near Charlottetown, encompasses the sites of French
and English fortifications of the 18th century. Some ruins are still visible.
Also of historical interest are the birthplace, in New London, of the author
Lucy Maud Montgomery, who wrote the popular novel Anne of Green Gables
(1908), and the Micmac Indian Village near Rocky Point, a re-creation of
an 18th-century Native American community.
Sports and Recreation
Prince
Edward Island's national park, its provincial parks, and its many beaches
offer ideal conditions for swimming, fishing, boating, camping, and golfing.
The island also has facilities for skiing, and horse racing is a popular
spectator sport.
Government and Politics
Prince
Edward Island has a parliamentary form of government. The nominal chief
executive of Prince Edward Island is a lieutenant-governor, who is appointed
by the Canadian governor-general in council to a term of five years. The
lieutenant-governor holds a position that is largely honorary. The premier,
most often the leader of the majority party in the provincial legislature,
is the actual head of the provincial government and presides over the executive
council (cabinet). In addition to the premier, the executive council is
made up of about ten ministers who head such government departments as
finance, health and social services, agriculture, environment, and justice.
The unicameral
Prince Edward Island Legislative Assembly is made up of 32 members, including
the premier and the rest of the executive council. Members of the legislature
are popularly elected to terms of no more than five years. Prince Edward
Island is represented in the Canadian Parliament by four senators appointed
by the Canadian governor-general in council and by four members of the
House of Commons popularly elected to terms of up to five years.
History
The territory
that is now called Prince Edward Island was reached in 1534 by the French
explorer Jacques Cartier, who found Micmac people living here. In 1603
Samuel de Champlain claimed the island for France and called it Île-St-Jean.
The island, a part of the French province of Acadia, held little interest
for the Europeans and supported only temporary fishing villages for nearly
200 years. After 1713, when the British acquired possession of mainland
Acadia from France, French authorities encouraged the Acadians and new
arrivals from France to settle on the island. The British won control of
Île-St-Jean in 1745; France regained sovereignty in 1748. British
troops occupied the island in 1758, during the French and Indian War. The
island was finally ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Paris in 1763,
when it was renamed St John's Island and became part of Nova Scotia. Most
of the French settlers were expelled between 1753 and 1763.
In 1767
the land was divided into 67 large lots, which were granted to British
citizens to whom the government of Great Britain was indebted. Settlers
were thus forced to become tenant farmers. The island was separated from
Nova Scotia in 1769 and an independent administration established. In 1799
the island was renamed to honour the son of King George III, Edward Augustus,
duke of Kent and Strathern, the commander in chief of royal forces in North
America.
Representative
government was granted in 1851. A brief period of prosperity ensued in
the 1850s and 1860s, when native-built wooden ships carried island products
all over the world. Although Charlottetown was the scene of the Canadian
Confederation conference in 1864, Prince Edward Island refused to join
the Confederation of Canada when it was established in 1867. The islanders
finally were led to do so in 1873 after an attempt by the colonial government
to build a railway left the colony bankrupt.
Canada's
smallest province has enjoyed a quiet history since Confederation. The
island's economy, based on fishing and farming, changed little until the
mid-20th century. The population actually declined from 109,000 in 1891
to 88,000 in 1931 as islanders went to the mainland in search of employment.
(During the last half century, the population has grown to more than 125,000.)
After 1950 agriculture was slowly modernized; the number of farms decreased,
while their size increased. A similar process brought specialization and
lower employment to the fisheries. Since the mid-1960s tourism has become
a major source of income.
