‘Yes’ chairman says bridge support even stronger today – 20 years later

Larkin recalls ‘Islanders for a Better Tomorrow’ campaign that helped make decision

“Because of their opposition and the messages they were carrying, we’ve ended up with a better product, I think, than we would have had without them. That’s the very nature of democracy.” Jim Larkin

Besides waging a campaign to convince fellow Islanders to jump on the “Yes” side for Prince Edward Island’s historic Jan. 18, 1988 plebiscite on the fixed link question, Jim Larkin recalls the need to convince Ottawa that Islanders really were onside.

Larkin, who chaired the plebiscite’s “Islanders for a Better Tomorrow” ‘Yes’ forces, said recently he was reminded during the plebiscite campaign that Ottawa wasn’t getting a strong sense that Islanders favoured the fixed link proposal.

So Islanders for a Better Tomorrow launched a letter-writing campaign and, with support from the carpenter’s union, they blitzed shopping malls and public spaces encouraging Islanders to sign their support.

“Within two weeks we put 10,000 letters, signed by Islanders, on the minister’s desk.”

By the time the date for the plebiscite arrived, Larkin was confident the “Yes” side would win. In the end it prevailed with just under 60 per cent of the votes cast.

And if a vote were held today, Larkin is confident support for the 20-year-old Confederation Bridge would now top 90 per cent.

“It’s been very positive for the province and we’d never give it up now,” he said.

But that result might never have happened had chambers of commerce and the Tourism Industry Association of P.E.I. (TIAPEI) not joined forces with unions, businesses and organizations to form Islanders for a Better Tomorrow. “Something had to be done,” said Larkin who, at the time was TIAPEI’s executive director.

He acknowledged many Islanders were fearful about what a fixed link might mean for their island, and the “No” side, Friends of the Island, was magnifying those concerns. “There were all kinds of talk about what would come across this bridge,” he acknowledged.

Larkin, however, believes the “No” side played an important role in the process. “Because of their opposition and the messages they were carrying, we’ve ended up with a better product, I think, than we would have had without them. That’s the very nature of democracy.”

He believes expressed opposition led to research on the impact ice might have on the bridge, which resulted in the addition of ice cones.

One of those who agreed with Larkin was St. Nicholas beef farmer John MacDonald, who was running a farrier business in the 1980s and made numerous trips to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to shoe horses. He saw how a bridge would ease his travel burden and felt it would be beneficial to the agricultural and fishing sectors.

“We knew, with the ferry, there was a lot of produce not getting to the markets on time and being beaten out by competitors due to that time-lapse that was in there riding the ferry,” he said in explaining why he was solidly in the “Yes” camp.

He saw, too, that anyone needing medical care could make it to the large regional health centres easier without factoring in a ferry schedule. MacDonald suspects some of the manufacturing and processing companies that now exist on Prince Edward Island wouldn’t have come without the bridge.

He recalls speaking with a mainland retailer one time about setting up an Island store.

He was told the ferry schedule made it impossible. The business has since established in Charlottetown.

“I think, overall, it’s extremely positive to the area, and it shows that in our agricultural commodities and anything we’re exporting, and seafood particularly,” MacDonald commented. In addition, Larkin said tourism numbers took a big jump in 1997, the year the bridge opened, and that the industry has continued to grow ever since.