About Charlottetown Herald
In 1864, when it began publishing, the Charlottetown Herald was a politically nonpartisan newspaper, the successor to the Vindicator. It took a strong anti-Confederation stance, and
in its editorial columns it often discussed the Land Question and reciprocity. News, fiction, poetry, anecdotes and advertisements were all published in the early Herald. In 1870, the editorial staff of the Herald changed and the paper began to support Roman Catholicism and the Conservative party. It promoted religious instruction in the schools and the building of railroads, and it continued to oppose Confederation. After P.E.I, joined Confederation in 1873, the Charlottetown Herald
favoured the Liberal party, supporting MacKenzie and denouncing MacDonald. It continued to be a Catholic newspaper through to the end of the 1870s, opposing the School Law as unjust to
Catholics. During the remainder of the Charlottetown Herald's publishing history, it was a Conservative Catholic newspaper. In the 1880s and 1890s, its editorials discussed trade, agriculture, tariffs, the subway and education.
During the first decade of the twentieth centry, the Herald's reporting from the Legislative Assembly was particularly good. Editorials attacked Liberal overspending and corruption, and opposed reciprocity. Between 1912 and 1921, there are no surviving copies of the Charlottetown Herald, but several issues from late 1921 do exist. These papers featured sermons on
Catholic worship, fiction, poetry, editorials and short news articles. Editorials supported Meighan, the Conservative party and tariffs. On December 28, 1921, the Charlottetown Herald
ceased publication, promising to begin again once financial arrangements had been made. Apparently it did begin to publish again, because W.L. Cotton writes that it did not finally cease
publication until 1923.
