09/28/2025
Only on (or off) PEI! 😄
🚗 Prince Edward Island certainly has the weirdest history with cars in Canada. It was the first place in the country to get one — and the only place to ban them.
Canada’s very first automobile — a steam-powered contraption from Philadelphia — rolled into Rustico way back in 1866. But by 1908, the Island still only had seven cars total.
That year, PEI’s politicians voted 28–0 to ban cars completely. It was the only full ban in North America.
One reason was that cars scared horses. Island farmer, Robert Jenkins, told The Guardian newspaper: “As soon as my horse saw the automobile, he wheeled in his tracks and began kicking in the wagon … the pleasure of a quiet ride on our country roads will be rare if those vehicles are allowed.”
Others simply thought cars were for the rich. MLA D.P. Irving argued:
“They are owned by men of wealth and leisure who force the public off the road.” Canada was in the middle of a nasty recession, and the car became the perfect symbol of the rich pushing everyone else off the road.
The ban lasted for five years. When it was finally loosened in 1913, farmers fought back fiercely — blockading roads and warning, in the words of Horace Wright of Bedeque:
“We’re going to keep them cars out if we have to take a pitchfork and drive it through them!”
The result was a bizarre hybrid system where cars were banned in some parts of the Island and allowed in others. Some people had to load their cars on trains to transport them to Charlottetown!
Only in 1918 did PEI vote to allow cars. But even then, it was complicated: the vote ended in a tie, and the Speaker had to break the vote!
📰 The full story is in the book 'Backyard History: Forgotten Stories From Atlantic Canada's Past,' on the Backyard History Podcast, or just read it here: backyardhistory.ca/articles/f/when-pei-banned-cars
