Everyday Oddities on Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a small island province in Canada — the smallest province by population and landmass. It’s best known for its potatoes, seafood, beautiful beaches, and Anne of Green Gables. Every year, the province is flooded with tourists and — I can tell you from having worked in the tourism sector — a lot of them don’t know a whole lot about the place. Like, I was once asked if we all go to the mainland in the winter, and was greeted with genuine shock when I explained that we live and work on the Island year-round.
(Seriously — this person was surprised we had schools.)
So, obviously, there are aspects of Island life that people don’t know about. Last year, I wrote about Weird and Wonderful Places to See on Prince Edward Island, but for all their oddities, those places are still by and large tourist attractions. There are still many aspects of day-to-day life that are unremarkable to Islanders but probably seem bizarre (or at least curious) to people from away. I mean, how many would understand references to the “can ban”? Or why crows are a subject of both amusement and ire?
While I’m not equipped to unravel all of the Island’s quirks, I figured it might be fun to go over just a few that I think are especially interesting.
Funeral Processions
I don’t think this is entirely exclusive to PEI, but rather more of a small town custom. Certainly it’s not something any of my friends from bigger cities were familiar with. In any case, if you’re ever on PEI and you see a funeral procession, there are some important things to bear in mind, lest you come across as incredibly rude.
First, never cut off the procession! It’s very common to give the procession right-of-way, even if you’re in a “city” like Charlottetown and a red light comes up for the procession. Just let them keep driving through and wait your turn.
It’s also a common custom to remove your hat while the procession passes, as a gesture of respect.
But the biggest rule of all is: Don’t drive with the procession! What I mean is, say you’re waiting to turn the corner as the procession passes on the intersecting road. If there’s a gap in the procession that you could slip into and drive along with them, don’t. Wait until the entire procession has passed and drive behind them.
None of these things are hard rules, exactly — they aren’t enforced by any laws or by-laws — but following them is a major sign of respect to the deceased and their families. I’ve been part of a funeral procession for a close family member that someone cut into, and I can’t describe how upsetting it was for all of us to have a stranger driving in the middle of the procession and symbolically splitting the family as we escorted our loved one to where they would be interred. Just don’t do it.
Ban the Can
Anyone who grew up on PEI before 2008 has fond memories of drinking pop from glass bottles. Not just the more niche brands like Pop Shoppe or Jones Soda, either, but your usual Pepsis and Cokes, all in glass long after the rest of Canada had moved on to cans and plastic.
This is because there was a “ban” on canned carbonated beverages in the province from 1984 to 2008. The ban came about as part of an effort to protect the environment (glass bottles are refillable, versus the typically more disposable cans and plastic), and to maintain local jobs at a Pepsi bottling plant. While this ban was in place, the only way to get a canned carbonated beverage was to buy it out of province and bring it back over the Confederation Bridge or ferry. Even now, there’s still a gas station on the New Brunswick side of the Bridge that my family refers to as the “last stop for pop”.
Lifting the ban was a source of controversy. Some environmentalists (including Sharon Labchuk, leader of PEI’s Green party) were distressed by the danger of increased negative environmental impacts, as well as the broader impacts of certain materials used in can production being sourced from disadvantaged regions were workers would suffer under exploitive labour conditions.[1] And the end of the ban did spell the end for glass bottles and, in turn, those once-protected jobs at the Pepsi bottling plant.[2]
Crows
“Okay,” I hear you saying, “this is where you’ve well and truly lost me. Everywhere has crows.” While that may be true, the relationship with crows on PEI is… different.
The issue here is specific to Charlottetown, particularly the neighbourhood of Brighton. This neighbourhood is right by Victoria Park, which has an expanse of wooded walking trails — and where there’s woods, there’s crows. Despite this easily predictable aspect of their neighbourhood, the residents launched complaints about the noise of crows so close to where they lived. And the city government actually listened.
The area was provided with machines called Phoenix Wailers, noise makers designed to scare away unwanted birds.[3][4] The recordings of gunshots and predatory birds did, in fact, scare the crows away. Unfortunately, they didn’t go far. Instead of roosting in the woods at the park, the crows now went uptown, to other residential areas. I can remember walking to and from high school and seeing bare winter trees so overloaded with crows that they looked full of black leaves. To say nothing of the mess they left behind all over sidewalks, driveways, lawns, etc.
Thankfully, the wailers were short lived, and the crows dispersed once more.[5] Doesn’t stop the people of Brighton from continuing to complain about them, however.
And this is all still just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to little oddities and inside jokes that come with living on PEI. I mean, the inhaled yes[6] is so ubiquitous that a local satirical news site, The Manatee, wrote a bit about it. But, well… That particular explanation can wait another day.
References
1) CBC News. 2008. “Islands Pop Tabs as P.E.I.’s ‘Can Ban’ Ends.” CBC. Retrieved March 12, 2021 (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/islanders-pop-tabs-as-p-e-i-s-can-ban-ends-1.752462).
2) Saltwire Network. 2010. “Pepsi Stops Glass Bottling on Island.” The Guardian. Retrieved March 15, 2021 (https://www.theguardian.pe.ca/lifestyles/pepsi-stops-glass-bottling-on-island-108659/).
3) CBC News. 2010. “Wailers Concern Residents at Crow Meeting.” CBC. Retrieved 12, 2021 (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/wailers-concern-residents-at-crow-meeting-1.874798).
4) CBC News. 2010. “Crows Plague Uptown Charlottetown.” CBC. Retrieved March 12, 2021 (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/crows-plague-uptown-charlottetown-1.867328).
5) CBC News. 2010. “Charlottetown Shuts Down Crow Wailers.” CBC. Retrieved March 12, 2021 (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/charlottetown-shuts-down-crow-wailers-1.894010).
6) Sinclair, Jesara. 2016. “Why an Inhale Means Yes on P.E.I. and Other Parts of Atlantic Canada.” CBC. Retrieved March 15, 2021 (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-ingressive-speech-1.3463465).
7) Mersereau, Jill. 2020. “Atlantic Canadians Urged to Avoid ‘Inhaled Yes’ During Pandemic.” The Manatee. Retrieved March 15, 2021 (https://themanatee.net/atlantic-canadians-urged-to-avoid-inhaled-yes-during-pandemic/).
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Originally published in 2021.
