Opposition leaders say Lantz’s exit as premier to chase PC leadership shortchanges Islanders

The leaders of P.E.I.’s opposition parties say Rob Lantz resigning as premier is unfair to Islanders.

Lantz stepped down Thursday after nine months in the province’s top job so he could run for the permanent leadership of the provincial Progressive Conservative Party.

That led to Bloyce Thompson being sworn in as the province’s 35th premier on Friday — making him the Island’s third premier in one year.

“That indicates some instability,” said P.E.I. Liberal Leader Robert Mitchell.

“We need stability. We have some fairly big issues that we're facing here in Prince Edward Island. You know, our health-care system in free fall, tariff threats looming in the south and our ballooning debt and deficit.”

Matt MacFarlane, the leader of the P.E.I. Green Party, said Islanders are paying the price for what he called Lantz’s “own personal ambitions” to become PC leader.

“He has been distracted, I think pretty clearly… since he was appointed,” MacFarlane said.

“If he was single-mindedly focused on being the premier since Dennis King put him in that job, then we would have seen more work out of this government.”

UPEI political science professor Don Desserud said the political situation in the province is quite unusual.

“It’s a case of a party that’s actually in power and then struggling to try and find out what they’re going to do next. That I’ve not seen,” he said.

Desserud said that may create a sense of instability surrounding the party's leadership, which isn’t good for the PCs' overall public image, that likely won’t last long.

“Once we’re into an election campaign, which I suspect will be as early as next spring, then all that stuff gets forgotten pretty quickly."

‘Rudderless without a captain’

Mitchell said he also suspects there will be an election next spring.

“Now that the decision has been made, the waffling is over, it looks like a spring election will be imminent. And you know, as a Liberal Party, we will be ready," he said. “We're putting our best foot forward and we will get out and we're going to put the concerns of Islanders first.”

MacFarlane said he's not only expecting a spring election, he's calling for one.

“I think we're going to be really on hold now with Bloyce Thompson temporarily in the chair. And you know, Rob Lantz didn't have a mandate from Islanders to be premier, neither [does] Bloyce Thompson," MacFarlane said. “We have been rudderless without a captain at the wheel for almost a year now.”

But Desserud said Thompson will be a good fit in his new, temporary position. He said the former deputy premier has been a “steady performer” since he was elected and someone who quietly gets his job done.

“As a choice for a person who can sort of get things back on the rails, calm things down in that party, I think he’ll do an excellent job.”

An unfair advantage? 

Lantz had been the province's premier and the PC Party's interim leader since February, when former premier Dennis King unexpectedly resigned.

Under the party's constitution, Lantz had to resign as interim leader, and therefore as premier, within 10 days of the leadership convention announcement in order to be eligible to run. In fact, he resigned just one day after the party announced the convention date — Feb. 7 at the Eastlink Centre in Charlottetown.

Desserud said there are some rules in place that say elected officials can’t use their office in order to advance their political careers. When an election is called, for example, MLAs don’t use their constituency offices as their campaign headquarters.

In this case, he said, the role of interim party leader and premier gives a candidate the ability to advance their position much further than other candidates — but stepping away from those roles prior to running for the permanent position is intended to level the playing field.

Mitchell, though, doesn’t think other candidates for the PC leadership will see it that way.

“Rob using the premier's office over the last eight to nine, 10 months to promote himself as the leader will not sit well with other candidates that want to put their names forward," he said.

As of Dec. 12, there is only one other candidate in the race: lawyer Mark Ledwell, who put his name forward in May. At that time, Lantz was still giving mixed signals on whether he would seek the permanent leadership.

When asked whether the months Lantz spent as P.E.I.’s premier will give him an advantage, Desserud said that’s up to the party to decide.

“I think what the PC party has to be keeping clearly in mind is that this is not simply a question of who’s going to run the campaign in the next election, this is the person who is going to run the province.”

Lantz himself was adamant that he did not have an advantage over Ledwell when asked by reporters following his announcement Thursday night.

“I have been focused on nothing but doing the job of premier, I haven’t been campaigning. You know, Mark Ledwell’s got quite a head start," he said. "We’ve got a lot of work to do. I would suggest that we’re running from behind."