When did Prince Edward Island join Confederation?

Prince Edward Island joined Confederation on July 1, 1873 as the seventh province of Canada, six years after declining to join in 1867. The colony's railway debts (about 4 million dollars from the PEI Railway built between 1871 and 1875) and a federal pledge to buy out absentee British landlords' estates persuaded Islanders to join. Prince Edward Island, with about 94,000 residents in 1871, was the smallest province by area (about 5,660 square kilometres) and remains so today.

PEI had hosted the Charlottetown Conference in September 1864 (the first of the three Confederation conferences) but rejected joining the 1867 Confederation. The colony's reasons included fear of being dominated by larger provinces, concerns about constitutional protections for the Catholic population (about 45 per cent of the Island), and a strong sense of independent island identity. The local Conservative government of James Colledge Pope opposed Confederation in 1867, and the elected Assembly rejected the Quebec Resolutions on October 1, 1864.

The PEI Land Question, an enduring grievance about absentee British landlords who held about 90 per cent of the Island's farmland, drove the eventual decision. Most Island farmers were tenants of absentee British landlords who had received land grants from the British government in 1767. The Tenant League agitation of the 1860s and the Land Purchase Act of 1875 (passed after Confederation) were responses to the question. Federal Confederation included a commitment to provide money to buy out the absentee landlords' estates, an offer that the Island's pre-Confederation government could not match.

The Island's railway construction (begun in 1871) was the immediate trigger. Construction costs spiralled, and by early 1873 the Island faced potential bankruptcy. Premier James Colledge Pope's government (returned to power in 1873) negotiated Confederation terms with Macdonald's government, including federal assumption of the railway debt, a fixed grant for absentee-landlord buyouts, and a guarantee of communications with the mainland (later interpreted to include the Confederation Bridge, which opened May 31, 1997). The terms were approved by the colonial Assembly on May 26, 1873 and the Order in Council admitting the Island took effect on July 1, 1873. PEI's first federal Cabinet member was James Colledge Pope, who became Minister of Marine and Fisheries in November 1873. Prince Edward Island remains the smallest Canadian province with a population of about 175,000 and is the only province whose Maritime ferry service to the mainland was ever guaranteed by the Constitution Act, 1867.