PEIP.E.I. Liberal officials say they have no intention of changing the party’s leadership after Monday’s byelection loss. Robert Mitchell lost the District 2, Georgetown-Pownal, vote to the Progressive Conservatives’ Brendan Curran. Mitchell lost district to Progressive Conservatives’ Brendan Curran in District 2Jenna Banfield · CBC News · Posted: Dec 10, 2025 6:55 PM EST | Last Updated: 6 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 2 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.P.E.I. Liberal Leader Robert Mitchell congratulates Progressive Conservative candidate Brendan Curran, who won the District 2 byelection on Dec. 8. (Wayne Thibodeau/CBC)P.E.I. Liberal Party officials say they have no intentions of making a change in leadership, despite a byelection loss this week. Liberal Leader Robert Mitchell lost the District 2, Georgetown-Pownal, vote to the Progressive Conservatives’ Brendan Curran on Monday. In an interview with CBC News that night, Mitchell said he “hoped” he would be able to stay on as Liberal leader. Wednesday, party president Katie Morello confirmed to CBC News that would be the case. Despite the byelection loss, she said, the party still feels the evening was a success.Katie Morello says the P.E.I. Liberal Party has no intention of replacing Robert Mitchell as leader. (Daniel Brown/CBC)”For us to get 40 per cent of the vote, for it to come down to the last two polls, it’s a lot of progress for us,” Morello said. “It is a strong conservative district and [Mitchell] knew, we knew, that it was going to be a battle, but he put in the hard work and… it came right down to those 100 votes at the very end, which is really commendable.”Mitchell, a former Liberal MLA and cabinet minister from 2007 to 2020, handily won the party’s leadership race over Todd Cormier back on Oct. 4 — but he has not been elected to the P.E.I. Legislative Assembly. The District 2 byelection, triggered by the resignation of former PC MLA and cabinet minister Steven Myers in early October, was Mitchell’s first opportunity to win a seat. Morello said Wednesday that the Liberals will be checking in with districts in the coming weeks to prepare for a possible early provincial election call. The PCs announced Wednesday that they’ve selected Feb. 7 as the date they’ll pick a permanent leader, while the P.E.I. NDP will also hold a leadership convention that same day. Under P.E.I.’s fixed election date system, a provincial vote can be held no later than Monday, Oct. 4, 2027, though an election could be called sooner. ABOUT THE AUTHORJenna Banfield is an associate producer for CBC Prince Edward Island. She can be reached at jenna.banfield@cbc.caWith files from Wayne Thibodeau
Robert Mitchell staying on as P.E.I. Liberal leader despite byelection loss, party says
