PEIThe leader of the Prince Edward Island’s NDP has announced that she will step down this fall. Michelle Neill, who’s held the role since April 2022, says she wants to spend more time with her family.The New Democrats are already searching for the next leader of the partyRyan McKellop · CBC News · Posted: Aug 25, 2025 3:40 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours agoPrince Edward Island NDP Leader Michelle Neill is shown with her daughter, Keila Blackett, and her six-month-old granddaughter Violet. Neill says she hopes to miss fewer family events after her resignation takes effect in October. (Wayne Thibodeau/CBC)The leader of the Prince Edward Island’s New Democratic Party has announced that she will leave the post this fall.Michelle Neill, who’s held the role since April 2022, said in a news release Sunday that she wants to spend more time with her family, which now includes two small granddaughters.Neill said she will remain in politics, just not as P.E.I.’s NDP leader.”Effective October the 25th of this year, I will be stepping down as leader of the P.E.I. NDP,” she said Monday. “I of course will stay involved in the NDP through the executive.”She said watching her family grow led to this decision.”Over the last couple of years, I’ve missed out on a few family events,” she said, adding that her two granddaughters will be seeing more of her come the fall.Leader of NDP on Prince Edward Island announces she will leave the job in OctoberAnd then there were four… Michelle Neill has announced that she will no longer serve as the leader of the New Democrats on P.E.I. As Wayne Thibodeau reports, that means there will be four brand-new party leaders heading into the next general election. “One is two and a half and one is six and a half months old now, so I’ve been missing out on some of that stuff and it’s just getting a little bit harder now as they grow. It’s a getting a little harder to miss out on that kind of stuff.”Says party is strong, with room to improveNeill said placing fourth in the recent byelection in District 15 didn’t play much of a role in her resignation. The seat went to Progressive Conservative Kent Dollar in the Aug. 12 vote. “I am a little bit of a realist. I understand that there’s still lots of room for us to continue to provide more information about what the NDP actually stands for here on P.E.I.”Michelle Neill greets a supporter during the 2023 provincial election campaign. (Jessica Doria-Brown/CBC)Neill said she thinks the state of the party is strong, though it has no seats in the Legislative Assembly of P.E.I.”We have a lot of good volunteers in the group and we have some more that are coming on recently,” she said.She said she is buoyed by what she heard during her own campaigning in District 15 and while supporting federal NDP candidates on the Island in advance of the April 28 general election. “We heard from people who want to run for our party in the next provincial election, and again in the byelection we had some people who were interested in getting more involved in the party.”Neill said the party has already starting to hunt for its next leader, wanting to “have as quickly as possible a new leadership convention run-up or leadership race.”Government needs to listen to health-care workers, says NDP leaderMichelle Neill sits down with CBC News: Compass host Steve Bruce in the second of our year-end interviews with leaders of P.E.I.’s political parties. The date of Oct. 25 has already been set for the party’s annual meeting, she said.”Then we have to have at least 30 days’ notice for our leadership convention. So we’ve got plans in place to get those things rolling and we’re already going to be starting, as of today, looking for our new leader.”‘Not a surprise’Don Desserud, a professor of political science at UPEI, said Neill announcing her resignation was not an unexpected development.Don Desserud, a political science professor at the University of Prince Edward Island, points out that all four established parties on the Island will have a new leader heading into the next general election. (Rob LeClair/CBC)”The NDP has worked very hard — she’s worked very hard — to try to get that party back on the radar of Islanders,” he said.”[It’s] very difficult in a system like ours where basically you’re a two-party-plus system. Historically, only two parties have ever been successful.”Desserud said there could be some bumps ahead, given that all four of P.E.I.’s main political parties will have a new leader going into the next election. That’s despite the fact that the most recent general election in the province was just over two years ago, in April 2023. “I think it’s a plus and a minus,” he said. “The minus is that without a lot of experienced leaders, then you don’t have a lot of experienced opposition, you don’t have a lot of experience dynamic where governments are being held to account.”You also… may not have, depending on who becomes the new leader of the PC party, experience in governing itself. So inexperience will cause problems and cause mistakes, but change is good.”P.E.I. NDP president Herb Dickieson, seen in a 2022 photo, says this is a great time for the party to renew itself. (Wayne Thibodeau/CBC)Prince Edward Island NDP president Herb Dickieson, the only person ever to win a seat on the Island for that party, said he thinks change will be good.”We feel it’s a great time for our party to renew itself… I think we’re looking at the next election being what I would call a change election, where there is an opportunity for a breakthrough for a party like the New Democrats,” he said.ABOUT THE AUTHORRyan McKellop is a graduate of the Holland College Journalism program and a web writer at CBC P.E.I.With files from Wayne Thibodeau
Michelle Neill to call it a day as leader of P.E.I.’s New Democratic Party
