Wade MacLauchlan has large tasks for a small island. Prince Edward Island's new Liberal Premier needs more people, more money, more immigration, more entrepreneurship, more health care for an aging population, among other needs in a province with 146,000 people.
Draw up the list of PEI's challenges today. It would not be dissimilar from those of previous premiers, Liberal and Conservative. How to grow the province – its economy and population – while retaining its charm? How to reduce dependency on unemployment insurance and federal programs?
Mr. MacLauchlan perhaps starts with the advantage of not being a career politician. He didn't capture the Liberal leadership, thereby inheriting the premier's job, then win an election for the money, since his family had operated successful businesses on the island. Nor did he need the prestige, having been dean of law at the University of New Brunswick and for 12 years president of the University of PEI.
No, Mr. MacLauchlan entered politics for the right reasons: because he thought he could bring change to the island to which he and his family have been strongly attached. Change, however, does not come easily in a place where traditions run very deep. Maybe, though, observers underestimate the willingness of islanders to do things a bit differently. After all, they elected a multicultural person as premier (Joe Ghiz of Lebanese descent,) the first woman in Canada as premier (Catherine Callbeck) and now a gay man, Mr. MacLauchlan.
Any PEI premier, however well-intentioned, is hemmed in by circumstance. As in, chronic budgetary deficits that have created a gross debt of more than $3-billion, making interest payments on the debt the third-largest item of provincial spending. As in, dependence on Ottawa for about 40 per cent of total government revenue, including about $360-million from equalization.
As in, a reliance on seasonal work. As in, a population aging faster than the national average, therefore putting stresses on the health-care system. As in, changes from the Harper government that will make future transfers for health on a per capita basis, removing any adjustments for an older population. Deaths are expected to outnumber births on the island by 2020.
What might help his province, the Premier is asked in his office this week? Naturally, he seeks additional help from Ottawa, especially in financing health care. Then there are the underwater electrical cables from the mainland that need replacing. The estimated cost for the first is $150-million, and Ottawa has offered $50-million. The Premier hopes, with a federal election campaign under way, for an increased contribution from Ottawa.
PEI has to do more things collectively with the other Maritime provinces. This cry has been heard for many decades in the region, but tangible results have been less than stellar. The provinces did recently agree to buy together an additional 20 generic drugs beyond the 14 generics that all provinces have agreed to purchase. This is a step in the right direction, but the three Maritime provinces should negotiate all drug purchases together.
Will we see Maritime Union in our children's lifetimes, he is asked? No, he smiles, there will always be the "gift of jurisdiction." What about abolition of the Senate, as demanded by federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair. No, replies the Premier of a province with four Senate seats. A Triple-E Senate won't happen. Nor will constitutional changes get anywhere, says the old constitutional lawyer. If Mr. Mulcair, or anyone else, holds a referendum on Senate abolition, "I'd campaign against it."
Mr. MacLauchlan therefore will not join the group of patron saints of lost causes searching to abolish or elect the Senate, but has signed up for another lost cause: electoral reform. Very soon, the Premier will unveil a white paper on "democratic renewal" that will likely propose a shift from the first-past-the-post voting system used across Canada to some form of proportional representation.
A plebiscite on a form of PR was held on the island about a decade ago, and voters opted for the status quo. Efforts to change from first-past-the-post failed in B.C. and Ontario. Both the federal NDP and Liberals want to change the national voting system, albeit in different ways. Maybe Mr. MacLauchlan can persuade his fellow islanders to get in front of the national debate by altering their own system first.