Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island, Canada

Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.), also called the Island, one of the Maritime Provinces of Canada. Curving from North Cape to East Point, “the Island,” as Prince Edward Islanders refer to the province, is about 140 miles (225 km) long, ranging from 2 to 40 miles (3 to 65 km) in width. It lies between 46° and 47° N latitude and 62° and 64° W longitude. To the south and west, the Northumberland Strait separates the island from the mainland provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Its location, along with the island’s fertile red soil, has given Prince Edward Island two nicknames: the “Garden of the Gulf” (referring to the Gulf of St. Lawrence) and the “Million-Acre Farm.” It is also sometimes referred to as “Spud Island” because of its significant potato production.

The aboriginal Mi’kmaq (Micmac) people called the island Abegweit—popularly translated “Cradled on the Waves”—which aptly describes the slender crescent of land nested in the surrounding waters. As part of Acadia during the French regime (1720–58), it was called Île Saint-Jean, but when the British took over they first Anglicized the name to St. John’s Island, then attempted to call it New Ireland, and finally, in 1799, named it for Edward Augustus, the duke of Kent and Strathern, commander of the British forces in North America and one of the sons of King George III of Great Britain. The island became a separate colony in 1769 and has remained what some scholars characterize as a “subnational island jurisdiction” ever since. In 1873 Prince Edward Island became the seventh province of Canada.

The smallest and most densely populated of Canada’s 10 provinces, the island has three counties: Prince, Queens, and Kings. In 1997 the 8-mile- (12.9-km-) long Confederation Bridge was inaugurated. It is the world’s longest bridge over waters that freeze over in winter and connects the island to the neighbouring Canadian province of New Brunswick. The name of the island’s capital, Charlottetown, commemorates the wife of King George III. Area 2,185 square miles (5,660 square km). Pop. (2021) 154,331.