The place file / Atlantic Canada
Prince Edward
Island
The bridge is free to cross and costs $20 to leave.
The Island has always known which direction it prefers.
Salty Seniors place guide
Could I live here?The draw
Never more than 16 km from the sea
The catch
One Islander in nine is waiting for a doctor
The question
How much shore are you allowed to own?
It banned the car for eleven years
In 1908 there were seven automobiles on Prince Edward Island. They frightened the horses, and the legislature banned them. All of them, on every road.
In 1913 the government tried allowing cars three days a week. There was an outcry, and a vote was held at school district meetings across the Island. About 90 percent wanted the ban back.
So for a few years each district decided for itself. A motorist crossing a district that had said no was required to have the car towed through it by a horse. The ban ended in 1919.
The Island has form. In 1864 it hosted the conference that led to Canada and then declined to join. It came in nine years later, when the bill for its new railway arrived.
It is the smallest province, with 182,000 people on red soil. The red is iron. It is in the cliffs, the roads, the potato fields and, permanently, anything white you were wearing.
There are no moose on the Island, and no deer. There is a quarter of Canada’s potato crop.
What stays open year-round?
Charlottetown and Summerside do. They are small cities with hospitals, a university, theatres and hockey rinks, and they carry on all winter. The shore is different. The lobster suppers, the beach-town restaurants and nearly everything around Cavendish open in June and are shut by Thanksgiving.
What will winter ask of you?
A shovel and a flexible calendar. Charlottetown gets about 287 cm of snow a year, and the wind has nothing between it and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The strait freezes. In high winds the bridge turns back trucks and trailers. Islanders call a day when nothing moves a storm day, and plan around it.
How close is the care you need?
Closer than on most islands, though not always quickly. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown has 243 beds and Prince County Hospital in Summerside has 110. But in 2024 more than one Islander in nine was on the waiting list for a family doctor, and some specialist care means a trip to Halifax or Moncton.
Could you live without a car?
In downtown Charlottetown, yes. Anywhere else you will want one. The railway was abandoned on the last day of 1989, and what replaced it is the Confederation Trail, 449 km of flat gravel path on the old rail bed. It is very good for cycling in July and no help at all in February.
What does a house cost?
The median detached house sold for about $415,000 in early 2026, and about $524,000 in Charlottetown. There is one rule to know. If you don’t live on the Island, you need cabinet approval to buy more than two hectares of land or more than 50 metres of shoreline. The Island spent a century buying itself back from absentee landlords and has not forgotten.
How do you get there?
Over the Confederation Bridge from New Brunswick, 12.9 km and about ten minutes, or by ferry from Caribou, Nova Scotia, 75 minutes, from May to late December. You can also fly to Charlottetown. Neither the bridge nor the ferry charges you to arrive. You pay when you leave.
