Laird, David

The Protestant and Evangelical Witness, the successor to the Protector and Christian Witness, was a religious newspaper which printed Protestant church news and theological articles, along with local and international news, advertisements, and anecdotes. The paper supported temperance and attacked the Roman Catholic church and the Catholic paper the Vindicator. It also discussed education, the Land Question and Confederation. The Protestant and Evangelical Witness was the forerunner of the Patriot.

The Royal Gazette, the successor to the Royal Gazette and Prince Edward Island Recorder, began publishing in August of 1830. For the most part politically nonpartisan, it printed proclamations, official government notices, verbatim reports of the proceedings of the House of Assembly and the Legislative Council, international news excerpts, fiction, poetry and local news. Local news reporting included descriptions of local events and meetings, and occasionally the annual reports of local organizations, for example, the Mechanics Institute. In 1851, following the appointment of Edward Whelan to the position of Queen's Printer, the Royal Gazette came to have a decidedly Liberal bias. The Coles administration was defended and the Conservatives attacked in the editorials of the paper. On February 24, 1854, John Ings was appointed Queen's Printer and the Royal Gazette reverted to its former nonpartisan stance. Even following Whelan's reappointment as Queen's Printer on August 1 of the same year, the Royal Gazette remained impartial, as it was to be from that time forward. During the late 1850s, the Royal Gazette mainly printed official government notices, such as proclamations, appointments and statutes, along with some foreign news, anecdotes and occasional items of local news. By the mid-1860s, everything except government notices had disappeared from the Royal Gazette. Between 1870 and 1986, the essential character of the Royal Gazette as the official government newspaper of P.E.I, did not change. Only the number of notices and the number of different types of notices changed, increasing as time passed. In the 1870s, the Royal Gazette printed mainly notices of appointments, sheriff's sales, proclamations, warrants, writs, statutes, tenders and land assessments. Insolvent's notices, partnership notices, and some court decisions began to be printed in the 1880s. By the turn of the century, court decisions had ceased to appear in the Royal Gazette, and executor's notices, administrator's notices, notices of dissolutions, sheriff's proclamations, Speeches from the Throne and lists of Acts passed at each sitting of the Legislature had begun to appear. During the 1920s, several new types of notices began to appear. These included mortgage sales, notices regarding letters patent, chancery notices and notices under the Voluntary Winding Up Act. Liquidator's notices and regulations began to be printed in the 1930s. In the 1940s, notice of annual meetings, notices under the Cooperative Associations Act and the Credit Union Societies Act, notices of rule nisi and change of name notices were all added to the types of notices printed in the Royal Gazette. In the 1950s, Temperance Act Convictions appeared, although they and the Speeches from the Throne both stopped being printed in the 1960s. In the 1970s, change of corporate name notices, government resolutions, amendments and proclamations, liquor control notices, and Quieting Title Act notices were all printed. On January 4 1975, the format of the Royal Gazette changed. It was divided into two parts: Part II contained regulations while Part I contained all other notices. During the 1980s the Royal Gazette added amalgamation notices and notices under the Companies Act to the notices it was already printing. The Royal Gazette is still being published today.

The Patriot began publication in 1864 as a Liberal newspaper. It was the successor to the Protestant and Evangelical Witness. During the late 1860s and early 1870s the Patriot opposed Confederation and the building of the railroad. Education was a frequent topic in the paper, with the Free School Act being endorsed. During the latter part of the 1870s, the Patriot fiercely attacked the Conservatives, opposing protectionism and tariffs. Fiction, news, poetry, and advertisements were all published in the Patriot during these early years.

During the 1880s, political opinion took a less prominent role in the Patriot, with local, national and international news coverage taking precedence. Local reporting was particularly good, especially of meetings. In its editorials the Liberal Patriot denounced the National Plan, supporting reciprocity with the United States.

In the 1890s, news coverage, including sporting events, the law courts and the House of Assembly, continued to be good. Editorial concerns included Tory corruption and overspending, education, the abolition of the Legislative Council, lower tariffs and lower taxes.

The first decade of the twentieth century brought editorials which promoted the Liberal party. News coverage continued to be particularly good, and photographs and headlines began to appear. Between 1910 and 1919, editorials discussed agriculture, the war, the merits of reciprocity and a variety of local issues. During World War I, the Patriot only tentatively supported the Union Government.

The 1920s saw the introduction of a number of new features in the Patriot. These included a sports page, comic strips, crossword puzzles and a women's page, which featured fashion and housekeeping. News coverage was excellent and editorials discussed education, taxation, government spending and temperance from a Liberal viewpoint. Photographs appeared only occasionally during this decade.

Local news reporting declined in the Patriot during the 1930s, as did the amount of political commentary, although the paper did continue to support the Liberal party. Temperance, roads and Conservative overspending were all discussed in the paper's editorials. Photographs were featured in every issue, with portraits of famous people predominating.

The Liberal bias of the Patriot completely disappeared during the 1940s. Editorials rarely dealt with politics, often promoting improvements for P.E.I, and dealing with the war and product shortages. Agricultural articles and political cartoons appeared occasionally during this decade. During the 1950s, the Patriot's editorials were generally politically nonpartisan, although a Liberal bias was occasionally expressed in them. International events and agriculture were often the subjects of editorials. Local photographs began to appear in the paper during this decade, and, at the end of the 1950s, a weekend magazine and coloured comics were added to the Patriot on Saturdays. In 1957, the Patriot Publishing Company was purchased by Thomson newspapers, following a fire which destroyed the Patriot plant.

Provincial news came to predominate in the pages of the Patriot during the 1960s. Editorials continued to avoid controversy, and a wide variety of syndicated columns were printed. The subjects of these columns included federal politics, health, bridge, horoscopes and advice. Television listings were printed daily. During the 1970s and 1980s, the Patriot continued to publish very much unchanged. Editorials discussed current events, promoted Prince Edward Island and reviewed political developments. The Patriot is still being published today.

Over the years, different editions of the Patriot have appeared alongside the evening daily. Between 1875 and 1909, the Weekly Patriot (see also) was published. It was succeeded by the Semi-Weekly Patriot which was published until 1913. A morning daily edition was published between 1913 and 1918. The last known issue of the Evening Patriot was published June 9, 1995.

Frequency: Weekly, July 1 1864 - June 1867(?); Semi-weekly on Thursdays and Saturdays, July 4 1867(?) - Apr. 2 1881; Daily, Apr. 4 1881 to June 9 1995 (last known publication date).

The Weekly Patriot, the weekly edition of the Patriot, printed short news articles, poetry, fiction, and advertisements when it began publication in 1874. It was a Liberal newspaper which supported the Free School Act. During the 1880s it opposed the National Policy and Tory corruption. The Weekly Patriot ceased publication in 1909.

Proprietor note: Laird & Mitchell, July 2 1875 - Dec. 29 1876(?); Henry Lawson, Apr. 14 1881(?) - Nov. 30 1882; David Laird, Dec. 7 1882 - Feb. 14 1884(?).