The automobile gains the freedom of the road
Aubin E. Arsenault followed John Mathieson as premier in 1917. Both administrations were pro-automobile since 1913, but it wasn’t until June 20, 1919, that the government got into the automobile business when Executive Council approved the following:
“Permission for Premier to authorize the purchase of an automobile for the use of members of Executive Council, a McLaughlin, Extra Special, the cost not to exceed $2,325.”
On the same day, Executive Council under the heading, “Roads Open to Autos on Dominion Day,” passed an order that “motor vehicles be permitted to be operated on all roads in this Province on Dominion Day, Tuesday, July 1, 1919.”
This was the first day automobiles were allowed on all roads of P.E.I. Islanders seemed to take this Order-in Council in stride as there was no reaction to this order in the press — either in the way of editorial comment or letters to the editor. It seemed as if after 10 years of fighting the good fight against the auto, that most Islanders accepted the fact that the automobile was here to stay.
During July 1919, P.E.I. was involved in a provincial election, and there was little mention of the automobile as an issue.
On election day (July 24, 1919), the government of Premier A.E. Arsenault suffered a stunning defeat. The headline the next day read, “Another Landslide in Island Politics,” and the Liberals under John H. Bell saw 25 Liberals elected compared to Premier Arsenault and three colleagues on the government side. Conservative maverick John A. Dewar, who went against his government on every automobile vote, had lost favour with his party but was elected as an Independent farmer.
While most of the automobile news in 1919 was positive, there was news of a darker kind in early August.
On August 6, 1919, an unfortunate accident occurred when six-year-old George Ward of Charlottetown was struck by a car driven by Walter Doucette of Rustico, and killed.
This was the first automobile fatality on P.E.I. and the inquest pronounced it as an “accidental death.” According to the evidence, no negligence was attributed to the driver of the automobile.
As the Arsenault administration was quietly winding down its time in government, Premier-elect Bell appeared to be in no hurry to take over the reins of government.
It was now almost a month since Arsenault’s government had been defeated, and Arsenault encouraged Bell to take over before an upcoming Royal Visit, but Bell deferred to Premier Arsenault.
The Executive Council then made a decision to open all roads to vehicles on Tuesday, August 19, 1919, “to enable returning soldiers and others to be present during the visit of the Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, and Peace celebrations.”
As with the Dominion Day decision to open all roads to automobiles, this order was accepted with no criticism in the press or in letters to the editor.
Another major Order-inCouncil soon followed, and in his memoirs, Premier Arsenault states: “… before turning over the reins of power to Mr. Bell I had an Order-in Council passed opening all roads of the province to motor vehicles. This action took the automobile question out of politics and no more was ever heard of it.”
On August 28, 1919, Premier Arsenault and Executive Council passed the following proclamation. It was ordered that a proclamation be issued extending the operation of “The Motor Vehicle Law” to all roads and highways in this province on every day of the week and that all Orders in Council and parts of Orders in Council and Regulations heretofore passed imposing Sunday and other restrictions on public roads and highways be rescinded, and that the Hillsborough Bridge be subject to railway regulations.
The Arsenault administration, although defeated by the Liberals on July 24, 1919, opened all roads on P.E.I to automobiles without restriction. In addition, all previous restrictions on the running of autos on the Island were rescinded. To this day, some Islanders still believe that there are laws still on the books restricting driving on certain roads, but all of these restrictions went away with this proclamation. As a side note, Premier Arsenault was the only MLA present in all three major decisions on the automobile. He voted against it in 1908, in favour of it in 1913 and had the Order-in- Council passed in 1919 allowing the automobile full access to Island roads.
This decision to open all the roads in the province to automobiles every day of the week was surprising in that a defeated government normally would not make any major decisions in the transition period.
However, since the automobile question was basically a non-issue during the election, and there was no public outcry when all roads were opened on July 1st and August 19th, possibly Arsenault felt it was time to settle the matter once and for all.
The automobile had finally gained the freedom of the roads on P.E.I. This is the third part of a three-part series by Island author Rudy Croken about the history of automobiles on P.E.I. The series is based on Croken’s book: Ban the Automobile: Instrument of Death. This year, P.E.I is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the automobile being allowed to drive on its roads seven days a week.