1974 Prince Edward Island general election

← 1970

April 29, 1974 (1974-04-29)

1978 →

All 32 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island
17 seats needed for a majority

	First party	Second party
	Lib	PC
Leader	Alex Campbell	Melvin McQuaid
Party	Liberal	Progressive Conservative
Leader since	December 11, 1965	February 3, 1973
Leader's seat	5th Prince	1st Kings
Last election	27 seats, 58.4%	5 seats, 41.6%
Seats won	26	6
Seat change	1	1
Popular vote	64,212	47,470
Percentage	54.0%	39.9%
Swing	4.4pp	1.7pp

Seats won by each party per district. Voters elect two members (one Councillor and Assemblyman) from each of the 16 districts.

Premier before election

Alex Campbell
Liberal

Premier after election

Alex Campbell
Liberal

The 1974 Prince Edward Island general election was held on April 29, 1974.^[1]

This election was the first that the New Democratic Party contested as a provincial party on PEI, and the first third party to run candidates since the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, the NDP's predecessor, contested their last election in 1951.

Party standings

↓
26	6
Liberal	PC

Party		Party Leader	Seats			Popular Vote
Party		Party Leader	1966	Elected	Change	#	%	Change
	Liberal	Alex Campbell	27	26	-1	64,212	54.0%	-4.4%
	Progressive Conservative	Melvin McQuaid	5	6	+1	47,470	39.9%	-1.7%
	New Democratic	Aquinas Ryan	-	0	-	7,327	6.2%	+6.2%

Popular vote

Liberal			53.96%
PC			39.89%
New Democratic			6.16%

Seats summary

Liberal			81.25%
PC			18.75%

Members elected

The Legislature of Prince Edward Island had two levels of membership from 1893 to 1996 - Assemblymen and Councillors. This was a holdover from when the Island had a bicameral legislature, the General Assembly and the Legislative Council.

In 1893, the Legislative Council was abolished and had its membership merged with the Assembly, though the two titles remained separate and were elected by different electoral franchises. Assembleymen were elected by all eligible voters of within a district. Before 1963, Councillors were only elected by landowners within a district, but afterward were elected in the same manner as Assemblymen.^[2]

Kings

District		Party		Party
1st Kings	Bruce L. Stewart	Liberal	Melvin J. McQuaid	Progressive Conservative Liberal
2nd Kings	Walter Dingwell	Progressive Conservative	Leo Rossiter	Progressive Conservative
3rd Kings	William Bennett Campbell	Liberal	Bud Ings	Liberal
4th Kings	Charles Fraser	Liberal	Gilbert R. Clements	Liberal
5th Kings	Arthur J. MacDonald	Liberal	Waldron Lavers	Liberal

Prince

District		Party		Party
1st Prince	Russell Perry	Liberal	Robert E. Campbell	Liberal
2nd Prince	George R. Henderson	Liberal	Joshua MacArthur	Liberal Progressive Conservative
3rd Prince	William Gallant	Liberal	Edward Clark	Liberal
4th Prince	Catherine Sophia Callbeck	Liberal	Frank Jardine	Liberal
5th Prince	Earle Hickey	Liberal	Alexander B. Campbell	Liberal

Queens

District		Party		Party
1st Queens	Jean Canfield	Liberal	Ralph Johnstone	Liberal
2nd Queens	David Ford	Liberal	Lloyd MacPhail	Progressive Conservative
3rd Queens	Cecil A. Miller	Liberal	Levi McNally	Liberal
4th Queens	Vernon MacIntyre	Progressive Conservative	Daniel Compton	Progressive Conservative
5th Queens	Gordon L. Bennett	Liberal Progressive Conservative	George Proud	Liberal
6th Queens	Allison MacDonald	Liberal	John H. Maloney	Liberal

Sources

^ "Provincial General Election Results, 1974" (PDF). Elections PEI. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 6, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
^ Fred Driscoll. "History and Politics of Prince Edward Island" (PDF). Canadian Parliamentary Review.

v t e Elections and referendums in Prince Edward Island
General elections	1873 1876 1879 1882 1886 1890 1893 1897 1900 1904 1908 1912 1915 1919 1923 1927 1931 1935 1939 1943 1947 1951 1955 1959 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1979 1982 1986 1989 1993 1996 2000 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023
Municipal elections	2014 2018 2022
Referendums	1878 1893 1898 1901 1913 1923 1929 1940 1948 1954 (May) 1954 (Nov) 1988 2005 2016 2019
See also: List of Prince Edward Island by-elections