1942: Prince Edward Island

There were no significant political developments in Prince Edward Island during 1942. The province voted decisively to grant Prime Minister Mackenzie King's request for release from his 1940 pledge not to conscript men for overseas service and, in general, gave wholehearted support to the Government's war program.

Under an agreement between the provincial government and the Federal Treasury, the province agreed to accept annual payments of $701,943, which is the net cost of servicing the provincial debt, as compensation for relinquishing the right to levy income and corporation taxes for the duration of the war.

The population of Prince Edward Island in the 1941 decennial census was 93,919 as compared with 88,038 in 1931. The province retained its two seats in the Dominion House of Commons.

1940: Prince Edward Island

Finance Minister J. L. Ralston, who was later named Minister of Defense to replace Norman M. Robers, and Dr. Cyrus Macmillan, were elected to the Dominion Parliament from Prince Edward Island in the Liberal landslide in the Dominion elections of March 26, 1940. This gave the tiny island province two outstanding members in Parliament.

Drastic legislation controlling the price of gasoline, somewhat on the model of that previously adopted in British Columbia, was the principal legislative action during 1940.

Prince Edward Island felt the full brunt of the destructive tropical hurricane which struck the maritime provinces on September 17, causing damage in the three provinces estimated at $1,000,000. Communication lines throughout the Island and connecting the Island with the outside world were disrupted by the 75-mile-an-hour gale which lasted throughout the entire day. Damage, however, was less than in the two other maritime provinces.

1939: Prince Edward Island

When they were greeted by Charlottetown on June 14, 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited the place where the Dominion of Canada was born seventy-five years ago. They were received in the legislative chamber, the birthplace of the Dominion, by Premier Thane A. Campbell of Prince Edward Island, Lieutenant Governor George Des Brisany De Blois, and other high officials. The royal couple made the visit in a driving rain, which somewhat restricted the ceremonies. They crossed from Cape Tormentine, New Brunswick, and returned by way of Pictou, Nova Scotia, and New Glasgow on the same day.

Politically, the year was a quiet one. Dominion Finance Minister J. L. Ralston was raised by acclamation to the vacancy in the Dominion legislature in the year's only development of importance.

1938: Prince Edward Island

In the hearings before the Rowell Commission on revision of the British North America Act, the fundamental law for the Dominion of Canada, the brief filed by the Prince Edward Island Government differed strikingly from that of the other eastern Canadian provinces. The Prince Edward Island Government urged measures to restore the provinces to a sound financial basis, even if it meant additional Federal grants for provincial administration. It did not attack the Dominion, but vigorously opposed the plan to unite the three Maritime Provinces as against the interest of Prince Edward Island.

The budget for 1938 submitted to the legislature by Premier Thane Campbell showed an estimated total ordinary revenue of $1,886,701 as against expenditures of $1,934,634, leaving an estimated deficit of $56,933.

In the only by-election of the year, Lester Douglas, Liberal, was named to the Dominion House of Commons by acclamation in Queens, Prince Edward Island.