175 Years of Responsible Government: A Brief History
2026 marks the 175th anniversary of responsible government on Prince Edward Island. As such, it is a fitting time to look at how it came to be and what it means today.
Elected representation on PEI dates back to the 1770s, but prior to the 1850s representatives had no power to hold accountable the appointed officials who formed the colony’s administration, i.e. the Executive Council. The effort to make government responsible to the representatives of the electorate was a struggle that played out over several years in the mid-19th century.
Colonial Beginnings
As a British colony, PEI’s Legislature consisted of a Lieutenant Governor, a Legislative Council, an Executive Council, and a House of Assembly. The Lieutenant Governor and Councilors were appointed, and the members of the Assembly were elected to represent constituents in ridings across the Island. The Lieutenant Governor was both the British Crown’s representative and the head of administration. The Legislative Council examined bills passed by the Assembly, with the power to approve or veto them. The members of Legislative Council also served as Executive Council, advising the Lieutenant Governor in the administration of government, and indeed many members also held paid administrative positions. The Assembly could put forward legislative measures and levy taxes, but had no effective ability to appeal or overrule the decisions of the other institutions of the Legislature. Governance generally followed this framework into the 1830s.
Land Ownership: Planting the Seeds of Change
The land ownership system on the Island served as a motivating factor in the pursuit of responsible government. Many felt it benefited absentee proprietors and the local elite more than the people who actually worked the land. The Land Question was a major political issue in 19th century PEI, and by the 1830s land reform was the goal of a significant portion of the Assembly’s membership.
The Assembly often butted heads with the Executive and Legislative Councils. The Assembly often did not agree with the policies of Executive Council, and the Council generally did not share the views of the Reformers. Some councilors were employed as land agents who worked on behalf of proprietors, making them unpopular with the Assembly’s rural tenant electorate. The Assembly could express its will by passing bills, but in their legislative capacity Councilors could veto them. A “family compact” existed in the Councils, whereby many members were related by blood or marriage and, in the view of the Assembly, put their interests before those of the colony. Council appointments were “during pleasure,” or essentially indefinite, so the Assembly could not simply wait for the appointment of Councilors more sympathetic to the reform ideals. To bring about the change they wished to see, the Reformers in the Assembly realized they had to change the dynamic between the institutions of the Legislature; in particular, the executive had to be made responsible to the elected representatives of the people.
Momentum for responsible government began building in the late 1830s. The Assembly first took aim at the family compact, and urged the King to make the Executive and Legislative Councils separate bodies with distinct memberships. This separation took place in 1839, and included the placement of a few members of the House of Assembly on the Executive Council. The separation served to disperse some of the influence of the family compact. The ending of Council appointment during pleasure also happened in 1839. These long-term appointments had originally been used in order to bring qualified candidates for public offices to the colonies from Britain. By 1839, there were enough qualified colonial residents to fill these offices, and Secretary of State Lord John Russell made it known that colonial officers, including Executive Councilors, should “retire from the public service as often as any sufficient motives of public polity may suggest.” His intention was to make colonial officers more accountable to their Lieutenant Governors, but the Reformers interpreted his instructions as an endorsement of the executive’s responsibility to the elected representatives of the people. In April, 1840, the Assembly sent a request to Queen Victoria to grant responsible government, citing Russell’s despatch, an inability to settle the Land Question while land proprietors influenced the administration, and a lack of confidence in both the Executive and Legislative Councils. It even threatened to consult constituents on whether to merge the Island with a neighbouring colony if change wasn’t made, as this would be preferable to the continued influence of absentee proprietors.
The request was not granted, and a decade of antagonism followed. The Assembly frequently expressed its non-confidence in both Councils. Lieutenant Governor Sir Henry Vere Huntley labeled Assembly members “plausible paupers” and “backwoodsmen” and dismissed the entire body as lacking “any sufficient intelligence to govern at all.” The Colonial Office argued that the Island was not sufficiently developed to warrant responsible government. But the Assembly persisted and the granting of responsible government in other colonies only spurred further calls for it on PEI.
Ultimately the argument would be settled by money. Prior to 1849, public funds on the Island came from an annual grant from Britain, which was controlled by the Lieutenant Governor and Executive Council, and duties and taxes, which were controlled by the Assembly. But the Island’s revenue eventually surpassed its expenses, and so the Colonial Office informed the Lieutenant Governor that effective April 1, 1849, the grant from the British Parliament would no longer be given. This meant that the House of Assembly would assume the civil list, the salaries and expenses of government officials. The Assembly agreed to do so on the condition that responsible government be granted first. Further disagreement ensued, and Lieutenant Governor Sir Donald Campbell dissolved the Assembly in the hope that a new one would relent. But a Reform Party majority was elected in the new Assembly with George Coles as its leader, and soon a resolution was moved to withhold the funds for government supply unless responsible government was granted. The institutions of the Legislature were still at odds when Campbell died in office in October, 1850. His successor, Sir Alexander Bannerman, was given instructions to grant responsible government. He did so, and on April 25, 1851, George Coles formed an Executive Council responsible to the House of Assembly, consisting of himself as Premier, Charles Young as Attorney-General, Joseph Pope as Colonial Treasurer, James Warburton as Colonial Secretary, Edward Whelan as Queen’s Printer, Allan Fraser as Collector of Customs, and Alexander Rae as Speaker of the Assembly.
The New Way of Governing
A period of adjustment followed the granting of responsible government as roles changed within the Legislature. Despite being central to the motivation behind the push for responsible government, the Land Question remained unresolved. Executive Council became accountable to the elected representatives of the people, but their will could still be denied by the Colonial Office. The Imperial Government refused to assent to Island legislation that it considered contrary to the rights of property. To the Reformers’ frustration, land proprietors in Britain continued to use their influence to have local attempts to change the land ownership system overruled. The Land Question would remain a dominant feature of Island politics and culture until the Legislature negotiated a resolution as part of its terms of union with Canada in 1873.
Sources:
MacKinnon, Frank. The Government of Prince Edward Island. University of Toronto Press: 1951.
Journal of the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island. 25 April, 1967.
Recommended Benchmarks for Pacific Island Democratic Legislatures. Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. 2009