Parliamentary Relatives: Legislative Relativity: PEI Political Legacies
“Who’s your father?” That’s a favorite question in small but densely populated Prince Edward Island, where family connections abound. For instance, multiple current Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) have family ties to past Assembly members.
Natalie Jameson (PC MLA 2019-present) is a cousin of Thomas Curran (1904-1997), a Conservative who represented 3rd Kings (1959-1970). Similarly, Zack Bell (PC MLA 2020-present) is said to be a distant relative of Reginald Bell (1901-1980), a Conservative who represented 2nd Queens (1943-1960).
Matthew MacFarlane (Green MLA 2024-present) is the great, great grandson of Matthew Smith (1843- 1909), a Liberal who represented 1st Queens (1900-1909). Mr. Smith was Speaker of the Assembly when he died, reportedly of a cold caught during that legislative session, and current MLA MacFarlane is named after him.
Hal Perry (PC MLA 2011-2015/Liberal MLA 2015-present) is a descendant of Stanislaus Perry (1823-1898); elected eight times as a provincial member in Prince County starting in 1854, and elected four times as a federal MP starting in 1874; the elder Perry died in office in 1898. The Assembly’s first Acadian member and its Speaker in 1873, Stanislaus has a portrait hung in the Assembly chamber that bears an oft-noted resemblance to current MLA Hal. “To have that in my history,” Hal said in 2014, “it’s really nice to see that, and have [his] picture hanging on the walls here, it means a lot to me.”
Stanislaus’s grandson Joseph Alphonsus Bernard (1881-1962) was a Liberal who represented 1st Prince from 1943-1945, and current MLA Karla Bernard (Green MLA 2019-present) called Stanislaus “my great, great, great – insert the number of greats, I have no idea – uncle” in 2019, adding: “[Hal Perry] and I might be related. We’re not sure.”
She then realized she was the one in charge of getting to safety. After a night in Hinton, she eventually made it to her sister’s home in Calgary.
“I just unleashed, crying, and it hit me, I just left my family behind, not knowing what was even happening,” she said. “At some point you have to surrender to it. The magnitude is so gigantic, you can’t fathom it, and you are so very powerless.”
Jensen felt much better when she was able to return to Edson and get back to work and be the person people called, the person people could rely on to get information.
“For the second evacuation I had my laptop, so I was able to deal with calls and emails and we were able to largely maintain services,” said Jensen. “We are known as an accessible office, so it was important for me to be there for our community and feel useful.”
During the Jasper fires, Jensen said she had a real soft spot for the foreign workers, who are often young people who come to work in the park for the tourist season. “My fear for them motivated me to be stronger. They don’t know where to find resources and getting displaced in an unfamiliar place with no friends or family would be very lonely. My mind goes to them.”
Jensen says she was so impressed by the way people were protecting each other. In Jasper pictures were not surfacing out of respect for the people who evacuated and did not know if their homes were still standing. During her own evacuations the year prior, she was amazed at how the people in Hinton just opened their homes to strangers.
As heartwarming as it is to see communities pull together and people taking care of each other, Jensen is concerned about the impact on people.
“Because the pandemic and the fires all blur together, I don’t think people are okay,” she said. “We seem to have lost a connection, a trust. People are moving through life but are so quick to judge and quick to react.”
Support and Recovery
These short perspectives offer a small glimpse into the overall experience of three Members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta and their constituency staff as they navigated many personal and professional challenges during natural disasters in the past eight years.
There are over 100,000 more stories from these wildfires alone, some are heartbreaking, and some are uplifting. One truth that surfaced in all the stories is that there is tremendous support available when tragedy strikes. Certainly, there are resources through municipal, provincial and federal governments, but the biggest support comes from the people who have gone through it. Their shared experience and strong sense of community lead the way through the years of true healing and recovery.
MLAs and constituency staff are used to doing what they can to assist their community. They are used to dealing with unexpected events and volatile situations, but when a disaster strikes and they are dealing with their own trauma on top of their professional responsibilities, it is important to know that there is support.
PEI’s Legislature has had many closer family connections, including three father-son Premier duos (the latest being Joe and Robert Ghiz, who served as Premier in 1986-1993 and 2007-2015, respectively). Two current MLAs are also closely related to past MLAs.
Rob Lantz (PC MLA 2023-present) is the brother of Jeff Lantz, a PC MLA in 2000-2003, and later a provincial court judge. The Leader of the provincial PC party in 2015, Rob lost that election but returned as a PC candidate in 2023, winning his seat and joining Premier Dennis King’s Cabinet.
Robert Henderson (Liberal MLA 2007-present) has been elected five times and served in both government and opposition. His father, George Henderson (1935- 2020), represented 2nd Prince in 1974-1980, and served as a federal MP from 1980-1988. “You certainly learn a lot from your father and watching the steps that he had taken in his political career,” Robert told the CBC in 2020, “and I would pretty much say to the week before he passed away he still had political advice to give.” Robert is also related to Fred Ramsay (1901-1986), who represented 1st Prince in 1943-1951.
The Henderson homestead at 226 Murray Road has a unique political history; built by the Murphy family in the early 1800s, it was later bought by the Hendersons. Joseph Murphy (1827-1904), who was born at the homestead in 1827, served as a Member of the Legislative Council for 1st Prince from 1882-1893. More than 100 years later, George Henderson also grew up there, and Robert still lives there today.
Sean McQuaid
Research Officer, Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island