Patricia (Pat) Janet Mella

MELLA, M.A., HONOURABLE PATRICIA JANET, educator; b. 29 August 1943 in Port Hill, daughter of Frank Joseph MacDougall and Patricia Mary Hilda Callaghan; m. 27 June 1970 Angelo Mella and they had three children, Andrew, Michael, and Nancy; Roman Catholic. Mella, a Conservative, was first elected to the Legislative Assembly in the general election of 1993 for 3rd Queens. She was elected in the general election of 1996 to the new electoral district of Glen Stewart-Bellevue Cove. She was re-elected in the general election of 2000. Mella was defeated in the general election of 1989 for 3rd Queens. Elected Leader of the Conservatives on 10 November 1990, Mella became the first woman in the province's history to be named leader of a political party. She had no seat in the Legislative Assembly until 1993, when she became the only Conservative member in the 31-seat Legislative Assembly. Mella resigned as Leader of the Opposition on 1 December 1995. On 27 November 1996, she was appointed Provincial Treasurer in the government of Premier Patrick Binns*. Mella began her education at local schools and she obtained a high school diploma in 1961 at Kinkora High School. She attended St. Dunstan's University, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in 1965 and a Bachelor of Education in 1973. Mella studied at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, where she earned a Master of Arts in 1967 and worked as a teaching assistant. She returned to Canada and accepted a position as a lecturer at Carleton University from 1967 to 1970, and at Queen's University from 1970 until 1972. That same year, Mella moved back to the Maritimes, where she taught ]unior high school in Halifax. In 1979 she and her family moved to the Island where she taught junior and senior high school. In 1987 she obtained a teaching position at Charlottetown Rural Regional High School, and remained there until she became Leader of the Conservative party. Mella served as Secretary of the Cardigan Riding Association and the Progressive Conservative Party. She was co-chair of the federal Progressive Conservative campaign in 1988. She was a member of the Bunburv-Southport-Crossroads Recreation Commission and the Local Advisory Council for Canadian Job Strategies for Employment and Immigration Canada. She has also served on committees relating to education and professional development through the Prince Edward Island Teacher's Federation. Mella is a past-president of the Charlottetown Christian Council and was a member of the Diocesan Pastoral Council for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlottetown. Patricia Mella and her husband currently reside in Stratford. Angelo Mella, the son of Silvio and Josephine Mella of Romania, moved to Edmonton in 1951, and then to Ontario, where he joined the mathematics faculty of Carleton University. The couple met when Patricia Mella joined the faculty to teach sociology.