Malpeque, PE — 2008 Federal Election Results Map

Malpeque

Malpeque is the band of countryside running the full width of Prince Edward Island between its two cities, curling around Charlottetown at one end and stopping at Summerside's doorstep at the other. It took in 1,663 square kilometres and about 33,800 people in 2008 — most of Prince County east of Summerside, and the Queens County townships north and west of the capital.

Candidates

Wayne Easter (Liberal) — Easter was born in 1949 at North Wiltshire, where he still ran a dairy, beef and grain operation. He was educated at Charlottetown Rural High School and the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, then rose through the National Farmers Union to its presidency before entering the Commons in 1993. He was parliamentary secretary to the minister of fisheries and oceans from 1997 to 1999, solicitor general of Canada from October 2002 to December 2003, and parliamentary secretary for agriculture with an emphasis on rural development from 2004 to 2006. In opposition he carried the agriculture and Canadian Wheat Board file. Seeking a sixth term, he was among the most senior farm voices in the Liberal caucus.

Mary Crane (Conservative) — An educator from Kensington, Crane returned as the Conservative candidate in Malpeque, having carried the party's banner in the same riding at the 2004 general election.

J'Nan Brown (NDP) — Brown, a retiree from Clyde River, ran for the New Democrats, whose Island organisation fielded candidates in all four constituencies.

Peter Bevan-Baker (Green Party) — A dentist born in Aberdeen in 1962 and trained at the University of Glasgow, Bevan-Baker emigrated to Canada in 1985, lived in Newfoundland and then Brockville, Ontario, and settled on the Island in 2003. He joined the Green Party of Canada in 1992 and had already run federally in the Ontario riding of Leeds—Grenville in 1993 and 1997, provincially in Ontario in 1995, and provincially on the Island in 2007. He was living at Hampton, in the middle of the riding, and Malpeque was his first federal campaign in his adopted province.

About the Riding

Farming defines Malpeque more than any other Island seat. Potato ground, dairy barns and mixed operations cover the interior, and growers' fortunes moved with input costs, land prices and the demands of the processing trade. The riding also holds the Island's single largest private employer: the Cavendish Farms plant at New Annan, east of Summerside, which processes frozen potato products for the Irving group and buys from farmers across the province. The shellfish beds of Malpeque Bay — whose oysters are shipped under the bay's name — and the lobster grounds off both coasts sustain harbours such as North Rustico.

The north shore is tourist country. Prince Edward Island National Park and the Cavendish area pull hundreds of thousands of visitors between June and September, and the seasonal rhythm of that trade, with heavy summer employment followed by winter claims on employment insurance, shapes household budgets across the riding. At the western end, Borden-Carleton is the Island terminus of the Confederation Bridge, opened in 1997, which carries most of the province's freight and visitor traffic.

Cornwall, immediately west of Charlottetown, is the largest community and functions substantially as a commuter town, as do Clyde River, Miltonvale Park and the settlements along Route 2. Kensington serves the farm country between the two cities. Easter had held the seat through five general elections, and the mix of producers, fishing families and commuters made it less settled than that record suggests.