2026 Lunch & Lecture Series
The Lunch and Lecture series is held on Sundays, 1:00 p.m. at the Macphail Homestead in July and August. The Homestead is located at 271 MacPhail Park Rd, Orwell and is wheelchair accessible.
It’s a popular program – a meal followed by a presentation with most focused on unique Island topics. The price for lunch & presentation is $30/person or $25/members. The series is part of the annual Macphail Foundation fundraising campaign.
Reservations are strongly encouraged and can be made at macphailhomestead@gmail.com or 902.651.2789.
July 5 - Dutch Thompson and Jill Birtwistle – “The Bygone Days …and Food!”
Welcome to my Grammie’s kitchen: todays’ menu includes bannock, pork fruitcake and creameaters featuring stories about hard-working cooks in lumber camps and lobster factories, plus the woman who drove a thousand miles to repay her father’s general store food bill…70 years later.
July 12 - Alan MacEachern – “The Spirit of ’76: PEI’s Back-to-the-Land & Environmental Movements of 50 years Ago”
In 1976, PEI embarked on an ambitious project: to become a showcase to the world for the research and use of renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies. The plan did not pan out, but the people that it attracted to the Island stayed and transformed the province.
July 19 - Gary MacDougall – “A Newsie’s Reflections”
July 26 - Dr. Laurie Brinklow – “PEI Artists Do Climate Change: Sharing Traditional Knowledge Through the Language of Art”
Art can be a powerful tool in conveying a message, reaching people emotionally as well as intellectually. The message of climate change is no different, and Islanders are reacting as never before by doing what they do best: making climate change art. This talk describes how local artists – visual artists and photographers, writers and poets, musicians and performing artists and filmmakers – are working through traditional means such as art shows and concerts, books and films, but also with local NGOs and policymakers and Island youth, to convey powerful messages.
Aug. 2 - Heather MacLeod – “Rev. Samuel MacLeod, one of Uigg’s 1829 Settlers”
Aug. 9 – Sandra Martin -“Has MAID Gone Down the Slippery Slope in Canada”
2026 marks the tenth anniversary of right to die legislation in Canada, a decade that has been fraught with legal challenges to expand the requirement that patients wanting MAID should be actively dying to include those with irremediable mental illnesses and dementia. Have we gone too far? Are the “vulnerable” at risk? Is all suffering equal, or does only physical suffering count? The author of the bestseller, A Good Death: How to Make the Most of Our Final Choices, Sandra will decode the legal and political challenges faced by ordinary patients, including Sue Rodriguez, Jean Truchon, and Claire Brosseau, all of whom sacrificed privacy to challenge laws they believed were unjust.
Aug. 16 – David Weale – “Pioneer, Pastor, Extraordinaire - The Life and Work of Rev. Donald MacDonald (1783 - 1867)”
There has never been an individual who has had such a profound effect on PEI. Rev. MacDonald travelled across the province preaching. His preaching was so powerful and passionate that people were “awakened”. The people in the Orwell area were central to his ministry. He is buried in the Orwell Head cemetery.
Aug. 23 – Dr. Tina Pranger – “Beyond the Asylum: The Evolution of Mental Health Care in PEI, 1846-2017”
How Islanders have historically cared for people with mental health issues has evolved considerably over the past century and a half. Today, Islanders can access a comprehensive spectrum of mental health services that include — but also go far beyond — the asylum/mental hospital. This history of mental health care will highlight information on Andrew Macphail’s father who was a supervisor at the PEI Hospital for the Insane.