District 25 - Liberal Candidate - Robert Henderson

Mr Henderson has been the incumbent Liberal MLA in District 25 for the past four elections.

He, along with three other Liberals, including fellow West Prince MLA Hal Perry, won their seats in 2019 while their party lost the election, dropping them down to Third Party Status.

However, in politics, experience counts for something, said Mr Henderson.

“To me, it’s how you play the game and understanding the rules and how you make that benefit your constituency, but also benefit the ideals and values that I would have,” said Mr Henderson. “Even in opposition, I’ve gotten legislation passed and it’s very rare that any opposition member gets legislation passed, but being in third party even harder, so I was able to do that because I understand the rules of the legislature and I know how the process works.”

Mr Henderson said the predominated issue of this election will be health care, which he is hearing a lot about as he goes door-to-door.

“It’s always been an issue and might have always been the number one issue, but it’s pretty well at every house now,” said Mr Henderson. “That wasn’t even the case at the last election, maybe it was half the houses it was an issue, but now it’s at every house and everybody is concerned.”

Mr Henderson said health care is in crisis across the country, but it’s even worse on the Island than any where’s else in Canada, especially when it comes to national health care indicators.

“Out of a 13 jurisdiction, we were always ranking between 8 and 10 in all of those indicators, but today we are almost dead last in every one,” he said. “That’s why I think it’s a far bigger issue than it ever was before.”

Another issue in his riding is housing.

“If you look at my district since the last election, there hasn’t been any new housing projects announced other than the one MP Bobby Morrissey and myself worked on, the community care housing co-op for the senior facility in O’Leary,” said Mr Henderson. “Nothing has been announced by the public or private sector for investments and now vacancies are even tight in O’Leary, where there’s people having a hard time, and we have homeless people in our district, so those are things I see that are different than what was before.”

Mr Henderson said his focus will be getting housing projects started, seeing the paramedic depot in O’Leary relocated to a modern updated building, working towards getting the Skills PEI and Career Development Services offices back into an incorporated community, address issues in the oyster industry and any other concerns that might arise.

Heading into his sixth campaign, Mr Henderson said he’s enjoyed serving the public.

“I enjoy the game of politics and understanding how legislation gets enacted and how the political system can make a difference in one’s community,” he said. “I still seem to have a passion and drive for the profession.”