Prince Edward Island’s minister of agriculture and fisheries has quit the post after announcing his decision not to seek re-election.
Alan McIsaac, the MLA for Vernon River-Stratford since 2007 and the province’s ag minister since 2015, announced Wednesday he won’t run in the next provincial election, scheduled for October next year.
“Given this, I feel it is the right time to no longer serve in cabinet and to focus on my constituents,” he said in a release.
The departures of McIsaac and Finance Minister Allen Roach — who also announced Wednesday he won’t seek re-election — have spurred Premier Wade MacLauchlan to shuffle his cabinet.
Read Also
Canadian potato output rises in 2023
At 32.063 million hundredweight of potatoes this year, Alberta vaulted from third to first place as it improved on the previous year’s crop of 26.813 million. Manitoba moved into second spot from third with its harvest of 29.760 million cwt. following last year’s 26.139 million. Prince Edward Island saw its output reduced in 2023 to 25.813 million cwt. from 27.789 million. In 2023, the trio combined for 68 per cent of Canada’s total potato harvest of 128,801 million cwt.
MacLauchlan on Wednesday named Robert Henderson, the MLA for O’Leary-Inverness since 2007, to replace McIsaac as ag and fisheries minister.
Henderson lives at Freeland, about 40 km north of Summerside, where he previously grew potatoes and blueberries and raised beef cattle. He has also previously worked as an economic development officer and employment counselor.
Henderson had served since 2016 as minister of health and wellness and previously as minister of tourism and culture (2011-15). He has also previously sat on the legislature’s standing committee on agriculture and fisheries.
McIsaac, a dairy farmer before entering politics, brought a significant farm policy resume to his stint on the agriculture file, having chaired the province’s milk marketing board and served as an executive member with the P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture and Holstein Canada.
McIsaac had also previously served as education and transportation minister and oversaw the merger of the agriculture and fisheries files, which previously were handled separately in the agriculture and forestry ministry and fisheries, aquaculture and rural development ministry. — AGCanada.com Network
