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That emphasis may reflect an appreciation of how little Canadians really know of the Greens and their principles, a lack that fuels whatever reluctance there is to lend it their votes. Other than making the world a more sustainable place, just what do Greens want to do? Bevan-Baker told the CBC he isn’t trying to play down the party’s core commitment, but “in order to present a comfortable alternative to people in politics today, we have to get past that idea that the Green party is a single-issue party.”

“Our generation has done a terrible job of living on this planet. And I’m not just talking environmentally, I’m talking economically and socially as well. And we have to step up to the plate and take the action that’s required.”

Not only does election day hold the possibility of a Green victory, but islanders are also to vote — yet again — on whether to introduce electoral reform. A binding referendum will ask whether to keep the first-past-the-post system or replace it with something known as mixed member proportional voting. So far, every attempt to drop FPTP has failed across the country. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau abandoned his pledge that 2015 would be the last federal election to use FPTP when Liberals discovered Canadians weren’t that excited by the prospect — and it appeared he wouldn’t get the system he preferred in any case.

One reason reform is such a hard sell is the complexity of the alternatives and the difficulty of explaining them to a public not known for its patience or enthusiasm for electoral nitty-gritty. In P.E.I.’s case voters won’t be allowed to pick and choose among the options, but will vote yes or no on dropping FPTP and adopting mixed member proportional.

A Green government tasked with adopting a new electoral system would be something worth watching. Should it choose to do so, P.E.I. could indeed enjoy a level of attention lacking since that day in 1864 when the country began to take form.

• Twitter: KellyMcParland