Land Question (Prince Edward Island)

The Land Question, as it pertains to the history of Prince Edward Island, now in Canada, related to the question of the system of ownership of land on the island. Proprietors, the owners of the land parcels on Prince Edward Island, favoured a system of renting to tenants, but the tenants preferred a system of freehold. In 1767, the British government divided all land in Prince Edward Island into lots to be owned by proprietors, who would collect rent from the settlers, or tenants. Problems soon arose with this scheme, and the low numbers of tenants resulted in proprietors collecting little rent, which in turn led to many proprietors defaulting on their quitrents. An attempt at compulsorily acquiring the land by the Prince Edward Island government from rent defaulters in 1781 resulted in Colonial Office intervention in 1783. In 1786, Governor Walter Patterson, who had set in motion the compulsory acquisition, was removed from office.

In 1797, the Escheat Movement was born with the goal of convincing the Crown to acquire land from the proprietors and sell it back to the tenants. In 1803, members of the movement won in the General Assembly of Prince Edward Island, but their attempts to set in motion the escheat scheme were blocked by the British government. In the following years, a number of General Assemblies attempted to acquire land from the proprietors but were repeatedly blocked by the British government. Following an unsuccessful attempt at civil disobedience in 1864 to 1865, the proprietors gradually pulled out of the real estate market and sold their land piece-by-piece back to the local governments of the island for sale to the occupants of their land. In 1873, Prince Edward Island joined the Canadian Confederation on the condition that the system be scrapped, which ended the Land Question in the province.