1996 Prince Edward Island general election

November 18, 1996 (1996-11-18)
All 27 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island 14 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   PC Lib Leader Pat Binns Keith Milligan Herb Dickieson Party Progressive Conservative Liberal New Democratic Leader since May 4, 1996 October 5, 1996 March 1995 Leader's seat Murray River-Gaspereaux Cascumpec-Grand River West Point-Bloomfield Last election 1 seat, 39.5% 31 seats, 55.1% 0 seats, 5.4% Seats before 1 31 0 Seats won 18 8 1 Seat change 17 23 1 Popular vote 37,910 35,802 6,283 Percentage 47.4% 44.8% 7.9% Swing 7.9pp 10.3pp 2.5pp
Popular vote by riding. As this is an FPTP election, seat totals are not determined by popular vote, but instead via plurality results by each riding.
Premier before election Keith Milligan Liberal Premier after election Pat Binns Progressive Conservative

The 1996 Prince Edward Island general election was held on November 18, 1996.^[1] It was the first election in the province's history to not use multi-member constituencies, and instead elect a single member in each of 27 districts. (Previously, since 1873 the province had been divided into 15 or 16 districts, each electing two members.)

The governing Liberals of Premier Keith Milligan, who had been in power since Joe Ghiz first won government in 1986, lost to the resurgent Progressive Conservatives under their new leader, Pat Binns.

This was also the first election where a party other than the Liberals or Tories won a seat in the Legislature, with New Democratic Party leader Herb Dickieson winning a three-way race in a Prince County riding.

This election was the only one in PEI history where a party formed government without winning a majority of the vote until the 2015 election.

Party standings

Members elected

See also

• 2000 Prince Edward Island general election
• List of Prince Edward Island general elections (post-Confederation)
• List of PEI political parties

Sources

Further reading

• Mutimer, David, ed. (2002). Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs, 1996. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9781442672093.