The Progressive Conservative Succession Crisis and the Oscillating Premiership of Prince Edward Island in 2025

Posted on 2025/12/18 by J.W.J. Bowden

Introduction

Dennis King became Premier of Prince Edward Island on 9 May 2019 as the head of the first single-party minority government in the Island’s history.[1] Little did he know then that his tenure as head of government would coincide with some the greatest calamities and disruptions in a century. He abruptly declared on 20 February 2025 that he would resign as both leader of the Progressive Conservative Party and Premier of Prince Edward Island the following day. He said in his official press release that his six years as premier “felt like a lifetime” and noted the “global pandemic, two hurricanes, cyber-attacks, trade wars, and so much more” that he weathered during his tenure; quite understandably, he sounded like he was suffering from what we used to call nervous exhaustion.[2] Less understandable, however, remains his decision not merely to announce his resignation as premier to take effect within a few weeks or months after the Progressive Conservative Party had elected a new leader but instead with near-immediate effect and on only one day’s notice, which set off a chain reaction that continues to produce strange outcomes in December 2025.

King Announces His Resignation With Near-Immediate Effect

King held a press conference on 20 February 2025 sharing “news […] in the best interest of the government, the best interest of our party, in the best interest of the people of Prince Edward Island, and in the best interests of my family.” He continued:

Earlier today, I shared with my caucus colleagues that I would be stepping down as the premier and the leader of the progressive conservative party of Prince Edward Island effective noon tomorrow. Over the holidays I had a long conversation with my family uh and we came to the decision at that time that I wouldn’t be reoffering in the next election. And since that time I have been thinking long and hard about when might be the best time to share that news with our caucus and with Islanders and when would be the appropriate time for me to step aside and allow for new leadership uh for our Province, and I struggled with it, honestly, because in reality, there is no perfect time. I have felt for a while that and I knew that I had more runway behind me than I did perhaps in front of me, further complicated with the threats of tariffs and the threats to our country’s sovereignty and economic uncertainty, and realizing that those aren’t going to be simple issues that are going to disappear in a few days or weeks. They will require the attention every minute of every day for the next four years, and that really helped me determine that it was best for me to hand the baton of leadership to someone who can be focused for the long term.[3] […]

I have repeatedly said time and again that I wouldn’t be a lifer in this job and that once I had made up my mind, I would move on, and that’s where it brings me to today. As is the traditional convention and in keeping with the bylaws of our provincial party, an interim leader and Premier will be chosen by caucus and the provincial executive, and an official announcement on that will be made in the hours ahead.[4]

The constitution of the Progressive Conservative Party of Prince Edward Island (which calls itself officially an “association”) sets out some rules under “Article 29 – Interim Party Leader” and “Article 30 – Leadership Conventions” which King claims to have followed.

ARTICLE 29 – INTERIM PARTY LEADER

1.Upon the resignation, defeat at a leadership review, death of the Leader, or at the request of the Leader for a leave of absence due to illness the Executive together with the members of the Party caucus shall meet within thirty (30) days for the purpose of electing an interim Leader.

1.1 A simple majority of fifty (50) percent plus one of the votes cast at a meeting held under this section shall be required to elect an interim Leader. In the event that no one candidate receives fifty (50) percent plus one of the votes cast, the candidate who received the fewest votes shall be dropped and another ballot shall be held. This process shall continue until an interim Leader is elected.

1.2 A Leader on medical leave of absence shall return to position of Leader as soon as he/she is medically able to do so.

1.3 Any person who has held the office of interim Leader within one hundred and eighty (180) days of a leadership convention shall not be eligible to be elected as Party Leader.

1.4 Not-withstanding 1.3 above, should there be less one hundred and eighty (180) days notice given for a leadership convention a person holding the position of interim Leader shall be eligible to be elected as Party Leader should they resign as interim Leader within ten (10) days of such notice.

2.An interim Party Leader shall have the same authority as that of the Party Leader as outlined in ARTICLE 28 and shall be recognized as Party Leader.

ARTICLE 30 – LEADERSHIP CONVENTIONS

1. Upon the resignation, defeat at a leadership review or death of the Leader, a provincial leadership convention to elect a new Leader shall be held at such time and place, as the Executive shall decide.[5]

King’s abrupt resignation struck everyone by surprise; he had even appointed a series of new deputy ministers only two weeks earlier.[6] He also resigned only a few days before the Legislative Assembly would have met for its spring sitting, which lent an air of chaos to the whole affair.[7] Despite his erroneous reference to “traditional convention,” King acted as if Canada still used the proper method where the parliamentary party alone elects and ousts leaders; if we did, then caucus would have elected a new leader forthwith, and since the Progressive Conservatives hold a majority in the legislative assembly, the Lieutenant Governor would invite the new partyleader to form a new ministry and become the next premier. But we no longer operate along these lines. King should therefore have followed the Canadian norm and announced that he would resign as partyleader and premier only after the Progressive Conservative Party of Prince Edward Island held a new leadershipelection within a few months. A responsible head of government in Canada would do no less than providing this prudent continuity.

Of all the ten provinces, a political party in Prince Edward Island should have no difficulty organising a leadership election in short order, given that only three hours by car separates East Point from West Point, and a mere forty-five minutes lies between Borden-Carleton in the south to Cavendish in the north. King could and should have stayed on as Premier until, say, April or May 2025 – especially given that he took pains that “to be clear my health is fine; I’m doing very well” – at which time the Progressive Conservative Party could have held its leadership convention under Article 30 of its constitution.[8] Prince Edward Island does not need to hold its next provincial general election until October 2027, and the new premier could have sought an early dissolution at any time. What could explain King’s sudden and abrupt resignation that broke Canadian norms? The most plausible answer arrived one week later.

A Corrupt Bargain from One Outgoing Prime Minister to Another

King’s decision to resign as Premier of Prince Edward Island immediately looks in retrospective like a pre-arranged quid pro quo, because outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced publicly less than two weeks later on 3 March 2025 that he had nominated Dennis King to become Canada’s ambassador to Ireland.[9] In fact, the Governor General-in-Council had ratified King’s diplomatic appointment on 27 February 2025, a mere six days after he resigned as premier.[10] He who claimed that he had to resign because of sheer exhaustion and the agonising choices between his public duties and private life also accepted a post that forced him to move to Dublin, though he can at least console himself with earning a salary of somewhere between $151,155 and $176,809. King’s decision looks less noble and more opportunistic.

Ironically, the exigencies on Justin Trudeau’s last days as Prime Minister of Canada might also have played a role in forcing King to resign abruptly as premier instead of staying on until the party elected a new leader: Trudeau had an epiphany and announced on 6 January 2025 that he would step down as leader of the Liberal Party and Prime Minister once the Liberals elected a new leader; the Liberals elected Mark Carney on 9 March, and the Governor General appointed him Prime Minister on 14 March 2025. Trudeau the Elder infamously made 225 patronage appointments by Order-in-Council in his last weeks as Prime Minister from 31 May to 29 June 1984, including 23 sitting MPs.[11] Trudeau the Younger similarly undertook a flurry of patronage in between announcing his resignation and formally resigning; the Privy Council Office’s Orders-in-Council database records a staggering 404 Orders-in-Council from 6 January to 13 March 2025; these included 252 appointments or re-appointments — though none for those disloyal sitting MPs who forced him to resign.

All this makes King’s tearful farewell and tribute to his wife and children seem disingenuous and self-serving instead of sincere and touching:

And just before I take questions from our friends in the media for the final time, I do want to take the opportunity to thank so many people who played an important role in the last six years. And this is where the speech will get difficult for me. But first of all, to my family, this position is very hard and challenging for families. Too many times, my wife and kids have lost almost every face off to the demands of this job. To my wife, Jana, nobody has given more to this than you. You have seen the best and the worst of me, but you were always there to pick me up to cheer for me. You gave up parts of you so that I could do this job. You bit your tongue more times than one person should ever have to. You picked up the duties that I couldn’t do so that that our kids wouldn’t miss out on being kids. You are, quite simply, the best person I’ve ever known, and I promise I will spend the rest of my life trying to make up for all that you’ve given up and all the time I’ve taken from you and from us, and I love you very, very much. To Jake and Cam and Cal, my kids, you’ve grown up so fast. You’ve had to share Dad with thousands of Islanders at concerts and restaurants and rinks and ballfields, but you always did so with a smile and a level of patience and understanding wise beyond your years. I just love you all so much, and your mom and I are so proud of the wonderful kind humans you are.[12]

Strictly speaking, he has remained true to his word so far that he would not seek elected office again.[13] “I really want to become Canada’s ambassador to Ireland, and I had to act quickly while Trudeau remained outgoing Prime Minister, or else cede the post to someone else” would have rung true but come across crass. King had not put in a performance this sly and full of artifice since he appeared on CBC News around New Year’s in 2023 and insisted that he would most definitely not advise the Lieutenant Governor to dissolve the legislature earlier than necessary to hold the election on scheduled under the fixed-date elections law in October 2023, which, eventually, of course, he did. King obtained an early dissolution of 6 March 2023 – the third in a row for the Island.

The Most Permanent Premier Is an Interim Premier

The Progressive Conservatives announced a few hours later on the evening of 20 February that Rob Lantz, the Education Minister in King’s cabinet, had “earned the unanimous support of his fellow Progressive Conservative MLAs to become the party’s interim leader.”[14] Susie Dillon, the House Leader, added: “This unanimous endorsement by caucus is a testament to Rob’s leadership, passion for good governance and unwavering commitment to serving this province. Islanders will be served well by Premier Lantz.”[15] Under a logical system where caucus alone selects and ousts leaders, this unanimity would suffice and would have prevented the Progressive Conservative Succession Crisis from festering for an entire year. The Lieutenant Governor formally appointed Lantz as premier on 21 February 2025, shortly after which “cabinet met and passed a resolution to prorogue the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island and convene on March 25th, 2025, commencing with a Speech from the Throne delivered by His Honour, Wassim Salmoun.”[16] Interestingly, Lantz had already won the partyleadership in 2015 but had to resign after losing his own seat in the general election that year in which Islanders gave Wade MacLaughlin’s Liberals a majority.[17]

Time had not extinguished his earlier ambitions. Even upon his appointment as premier, Lantz mused “I may very much enjoy doing this job and regret that I don’t put myself forward for that permanent leadership.”[18] By 28 May, Rob Lantz would no longer rule out running for the permanent leadership of the party and claimed some latent support amongst the electorate: “[…] many Islanders have approached me about reconsidering my stance on running for the leadership of the PC Party. I owe it to those who have been encouraging me to have a conversation with them and hear what they have to say — and that’s what I am doing right now.”[19] CBC News noted in May that Lantz would have to resign as interim leader (and therefore, in their rendition, also as premier) within ten days after the Progressive Conservative Party’s executive council announced the date of the leadership convention if he wanted to run for permanent leader once more, ten years after his previous bid.[20]

The Succession Crisis Will Continue into the New Year

Nothing happened over the summer, as Islanders undertook their annual ritual of stomping around in their ferrous soil to dye their feet red. The Island’s politics did not emerged from this slumber in November, when CBC News reported that Premier Rob Lantz wanted “to get down to business and elect a permanent leader of the Progressive Conservative Party.”[21] Lantz said on 4 November that he was still mulling over whether to run or not for the job that he already held. The new leaders of the Liberals and Greens – Robert Mitchell and Matt MacFarlane, respectively – both encouraged the next permanent leader of the Progressive Conservatives and Premier to obtain an early dissolution, too, in yet another display that no one truly cares about fixed-date elections.[22]

On 10 December 2025, the Progressive Conservative Party finally set the date of its next leadership convention for 7 February 2026, nearly one year after Dennis King’s abrupt resignation. Sydney Gallant, the president of the party, claimed that she brooked every delay because of the snap “federal election, three provincial byelections, and some party events like fundraising dinners.”[23] As of 10 December, only lawyer Mark Ledwell had declared his candidacy.[24] But the following day, Rob Lantz announced that he would step down as interim leader of the party and as premier – even though his party’s constitution only requires the first of the two – so that he could run to become permanent leader again.[25] Lantz took advantage of Article 29 paragraph 1.4 of the party’s constitution to resign the interim leadership within ten days of when the party executive scheduled the leadership convention so that he could present himself before that same convention as a candidate for permanent leader. Lantz’s decision forced, in turn, the Progressive Conservative caucus to elect yet another “interim leader”; the Lieutenant Governor swore in Bloyce Thompson as the 35th Premier of Prince Edward Island on 12 December 2025, and he will have to resign after the leadership convention on 7 February 2026.[26] Thankfully, both CBC News and the Government of Prince Edward Island had the decency to avoid calling Thompson “Interim Premier.” He kept Lantz’s cabinet intact and therefore kept his previous portfolios as Minister of Justice and Attorney General and Minister of Agriculture in addition to the premiership.

Prince Edward Island has now therefore seen in 2025 three premiers of the same party for the daftest of reasons. If Rob Lantz loses on 7 February 2026, the Island will have had four premiers within the span of twelve months; if he wins, he will begin a second, non-consecutive term as the 34th Premier. All this nonsense happened simply because Dennis King coveted becoming Canada’s ambassador to Ireland before Mark Carney replaced Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister more than he cared about retiring in dignity and whilst maintaining the stability and continuity of his party. While Islanders remain too diffident and polite to say so out loud, they still might will not look kindly on the Progressive Conservative Party’s Succession Crisis of 2025-2026 at the ballot box and might support a rival party in the next general election, which will almost surely happen before the scheduled date in October 2027 — making for the fourth snap election in a row, notwithstanding the Island’s futile fixed-date elections law.

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Notes

[1] Government of Prince Edward Island, News Releases, “Prince Edward Island Premier and New Cabinet Sworn In Today,” 9 May 2019;  Elections Prince Edward Island, “Provincial General Election – 19 April 2019: Results,” 19 August 2019.

[2] Government of Prince Edward Island, News Releases, “Premier King to Step Down as 33rd Premier of Prince Edward Island,” 20 February 2025.

[3] CPAC, “P.E.I. Premier Dennis King Announces Resignation,” 20 February 2025, at 2:14.

[4] CPAC, “P.E.I. Premier Dennis King Announces Resignation,” 20 February 2025, at 4:11.

[5] The Constitution of the Progressive Conservative Association of Prince Edward Island, 2023, at pages 22-23.

[6] Government of Prince Edward Island, News Releases, “Premier King Announces Changes to Senior Staff,” 4 February 2025.

[7] Cody MacKay, “Premier’s surprise resignation leaves P.E.I. in an unsettling position, Opposition MLAs say,” CBC News, 20 February 2025.

[8] CPAC, “P.E.I. Premier Dennis King Announces Resignation,” 20 February 2025, at 4:00.

[9] Prime Minister of Canada, News Releases, “Prime Minister Announces Dennis King as Canada’s Next Ambassador to Ireland,” 3 March 2025.

[10] Canada, Privy Council Office, Orders-in-Council Database, PC 2025-0194, 27 February 2025.

[11] J.W.J. Bowden, “How Governors General Appoint Prime Ministers: Why John Turner Believed That He ‘Had No Option’ And Became the Patronage Patsy of 1984,” Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law 18, no. 3 (2025): 716.

[12] CPAC, “P.E.I. Premier Dennis King Announces Resignation,” 20 February 2025, at 9:26

[13] Stephen Brun, “Dennis King Steps Down as Prince Edward Island’s Premier After Nearly 6 Years in the Job,” CBC News, 20 February 2025.

[14] Stephen Brun, “Rob Lantz to Become P.E.I.’s New Premier and Interim PC Leader after King’s Resignation,” CBC News, 20 February 2025.

[15] Stephen Brun, “Rob Lantz to Become P.E.I.’s New Premier and Interim PC Leader after King’s Resignation,” CBC News, 20 February 2025.

[16] Government of Prince Edward Island, News Releases, “Legislature to be Prorogued, Speech from the Throne to be Introduced | Government of Prince Edward Island,” 21 February 2025.

[17] Stephen Brun, “Rob Lantz to Become P.E.I.’s New Premier and Interim PC Leader after King’s Resignation,” CBC News, 20 February 2025.

[18] Stephen Brun, “Lantz leaves door open for P.E.I. Progressive Conservative leadership run after all,” CBC News, 28 May 2025.

[19] Stephen Brun, “Lantz leaves door open for P.E.I. Progressive Conservative leadership run after all,” CBC News, 28 May 2025.

[20] Stephen Brun, “Lantz leaves door open for P.E.I. Progressive Conservative leadership run after all,” CBC News, 28 May 2025.

[21] Wayne Thibodeau, “Rob Lantz calls on P.E.I. PC party to ‘get down to business’ and hold leadership convention,” CBC News, 4 November 2025.

[22] Wayne Thibodeau, “Rob Lantz calls on P.E.I. PC party to ‘get down to business’ and hold leadership convention,” CBC News, 4 November 2025.

[23] Thinh Nguyen, “P.E.I. PC Party sets leadership convention date for Feb. 7,” CBC News, 10 December 2025.

[24] Thinh Nguyen, “P.E.I. PC Party sets leadership convention date for Feb. 7,” CBC News, 10 December 2025.

[25] Marilee Devries, “Rob Lantz resigns as P.E.I. premier to run for provincial PC Party’s permanent leadership,” CBC News, 11 December 2025.

[26] Marilee Devries, “Bloyce Thompson sworn in as new P.E.I. premier, 1 day after Rob Lantz’s resignation,” CBC News, 12 December 2025; Government of Prince Edward Island, News Releases, “Bloyce Thompson sworn in as 35th Premier of Prince Edward Island | Government of Prince Edward Island,” 12 December 2025.

 

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About J.W.J. Bowden

My area of academic expertise lies in Canadian political institutions, especially the Crown, political executive, and conventions of Responsible Government; since 2011, I have made a valuable contribution to the scholarship by having been published and cited extensively. I’m also a contributing editor to the Dorchester Review and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law.
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I invite reasonable questions and comments; all others will be prorogued or dissolved.