Edward, born Nov. Instead, it was a mix of the Island needing a name — and Prince Edward advocating on its behalf — that landed him the namesake.
The Island we now know as P. John's Island. Despite hosting that initial conference, Prince Edward Island did not immediately join Confederation. They finally joined six years later, partly to help pay for the construction of an Island-wide railway. The railway that helped bring the Island into Confederation has since disappeared, but you can still ride the rails when you visit the Elmira Railway Museum in Eastern PEI.
Prince Edward Island continued to develop and change in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. As wooden ships fell out of use in the late s, the shipbuilding industry faded away, but was replaced with other industries. To this day, many Islanders make their living on the sea — and you can discover their history, culture and traditions at the Basin Head Fisheries Museum in eastern Prince Edward Island. Another growth industry in twentieth century Prince Edward Island was potato farming.
The Island also continued to make political history well into the twentieth century. Most recently, PEI became the first province in Canada to ban single-use plastic bags. The Island has also become increasingly diverse, with people from all over the world arriving to make their home in this beautiful place. You can experience some of the many traditions now present on Prince Edward Island at the DiverCity Multicultural Festival , held each fall in the streets of Charlottetown.
During the s the government was able to buy out some of the landowners and make the land available for purchase by the tenants, but funds available for this purpose were quickly exhausted.
In spite of these difficulties the population grew from just over 4, in to 62, around Although there was an influx of Loyalists after the American Revolution, the majority of the newcomers were from the British Isles.
Several large groups were brought from Scotland in the late s and early s by landowners such as Captain John MacDonald and Lord Selkirk , and by the Irish represented a sizable proportion of the recent immigrants. After the Island was administered from Nova Scotia and later, in , became part of that province. In , however, following representations made by the proprietors, a separate administration was set up complete with governor, lieutenant-governor, council and assembly.
With rapid growth in the second quarter of the 19th century, demands came for more effective control over the affairs of the colony by the elected assembly.
Although the concept of representative government had been accepted since , the administration was still dominated by the appointed executive council. In responsible government was granted to the colony and the first elected administration under George Coles took office. The period was not a politically stable one, however, for in the next 22 years, a total of 12 governments were in office.
The land question continued and, in addition, matters such as assistance to religious schools divided the population.
The Charlottetown Conference of , the first in a series of meetings leading to Confederation, was held in the colony, and it marked the beginning of a period of political change that would leave a deep imprint.
The meeting was called to discuss maritime union, but when visiting representatives from Canada began to promote a larger union, the original proposal failed to capture the imagination of Islanders. When the other British North American colonies joined the new federation in , few people in PEI regretted not being part of the union.
The reluctance of the Islanders, however, could not last for long. A massive debt incurred by the Islanders in building a railway running from one end of the colony to the other, combined with pressures from the British government and Canadian promises, pushed the Island into Confederation in See also Prince Edward Island and Confederation. The enticements offered by the Canadians included an absorption of the colony's debt, year-round communication with the mainland, and the provision of funds with which the colony could buy out the proprietors and end the land question.
Although few Islanders displayed much enthusiasm, most accepted the union as a marriage of necessity. The post-Confederation period brought severe hardships to the Island's economy and population as new technology, the National Policy and other forces combined to reduce the Island's prosperity. Although the province reached a population level of , in , the lure of employment in western and central Canada, and in the US led to a drain on the population, which had slipped to 88, by the time of the Great Depression.
Dominion-provincial relations dominated the political sphere as the Island sought to increase its subsidy from Ottawa, retain the level of political representation it had enjoyed at Confederation, and finally establish the continuous communication with the mainland that was promised in Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the economy of the province was stable, with only slight changes in both farming and fishing — with the notable exception of the fox-farming industry between and By the mids, however, the situation had changed considerably.
The number of farmers and fishermen had dropped, and the economy, which had lagged behind the rest of Canada, was in serious trouble. Upon the arrival of the Europeans, they were left with small parcels of land of poor quality, and suffered from disease and high unemployment.
They accounted for 0. The majority of the Acadian population can be traced to several hundred Acadians who escaped deportation at the time of the British occupation of the Island following the fall of Louisbourg in Today, approximately 2. English , Scots and Irish arrived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and by the population of the Island grew to just over 80, Thereafter growth slowed and following , natural increase was unable to keep up with the number of Islanders leaving, especially for New England.
Most of the other ethnic groups on PEI are the result of immigration in the last 50 years. The s and s were periods of slow population growth as Islanders continued to leave the province in search of economic opportunities elsewhere. In-migration in the s, combined with natural increase, caused the population to grow to , in Despite this growth, the population only represents about 0.
Charlottetown is the seat of most government offices, the provincial university, the Confederation Centre of the Arts and the art gallery.
At one time the city was a major port, but in recent years the number of vessels entering has declined significantly, although efforts by several agencies have resulted in regular visits by summer cruise liners.
In , the federal Department of Veterans Affairs was moved to the city, resulting in an increase in federal government employees in the area. The next largest urban centre is Summerside. Summerside's principal economic bases are agricultural service industries and government offices. In , the sectors employing the most people on PEI were health care and social assistance, retail trade, and public administration. Male and female employment rates are approximately equal, but unemployment across the province is a chronic problem.
The overwhelming majority of the Island's population The most commonly reported ethnic origins were Canadian, Scottish and English. Visible minorities comprise 4. Until recently religion played an important role in Island life. Geography has dominated the economic history of PEI. In the 18th and 19th centuries its insularity was a benefit. Produce and manufactured goods had to travel only short distances before they could be loaded aboard cheap water transportation and the forests of the Island provided the resources for shipbuilding , which became a major industry in the mids.
The prosperity of the Island was further reinforced by the Reciprocity Treaty of that led to increased export of agricultural products to the US. At the time of Confederation trade links were well established along the Atlantic seaboard and with the United Kingdom. However, the shift of focus after towards central Canada and western expansion, together with changes in technology, left the Island — which was a relatively strong economic partner in Confederation — in a weakened condition that has persisted to this day.
PEI was not prepared for the industrial age. It lacked coal and water resources essential to industrial development, and the cost and availability of transportation proved to be a difficulty not easily overcome.
Industries on the Island were soon crushed by larger and more efficient plants in central Canada, but at the same time the National Policy provided no protection or markets for the Island's natural products. The change in technology was most strongly felt in the shipbuilding industry. As the wooden sailing ship was replaced by steam vessels constructed of iron and steel, the entire industry died, having neither the raw materials nor the capital to make such a fundamental shift.
One activity in which the Island did provide a successful lead was in fox farming. Beginning in with the work of industry pioneers Charles Dalton and Robert Oulton, the province became the centre of a lucrative silver fox pelt industry. Fox breeding became very widespread, with many Island farmers supplementing their limited income from traditional agriculture in this way.
By the late s new technology, changing fashions and the Great Depression caused a rapid decline in the industry. Several fox farms survived into the postwar period, but have since steadily declined. Representatives also appeared at the conference to raise a broader issue and sow the seed of a concept to establish a larger union and create a country. This historic event of led to the founding of Canada. In Prince Edward Island became the birthplace of a nation with the creation of Canada, and every year many return to the province in search of long-lost family connections.
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