the 1993 election, under the leadership of Larry Duchesne, the party share of the popular vote rose to 5.4%. Dr. Herb Dickieson took over as leader, and changed the name of the party from the PEI NDP, to the "Island New Democrats". In the 1996 election, the party captured 7.8% of the vote, and Dr. Dickieson was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island for the riding of West Point-Bloomfield. He was the first member of a third party to ever win a seat to the PEI House of Assembly. Dr. Dickieson narrowly lost his seat in the 2000 election despite the party's overall popular vote rising to 8.4%. During the 2003 provincial election the party lacked funds and were poorly organized. The party lost its base of support, only capturing 3% of the popular vote. Some within the party credit this to the return to the Liberal Party of Prince Edward Island of many voters who left the party following the Liberal provincial government's decision to reduce wages of all public employees by 7.5% in the early 1990s. The budget for the 2003 election was estimated to be around $30,000, compared to nearly $1 million for each of the other parties. Robichaud resigned as leader on June 23, 2005, for health reasons after battling inoperable lung cancer for two years and died shortly afterward. He was replaced in 2006 by Dean Constable, a theatre stage manager for the Charlottetown Festival. 2007–present The party performed poorly in the 2007 election, finishing behind the Green Party of Prince Edward Island with just 1.96% of the total vote or 3.48% in contested ridings. They finished fourth behind the Liberal, Progressive Conservative and Green parties. Dean Constable announced his resignation as leader on August 26, 2007. The party announced it would appoint an interim leader at or before its annual general meeting in November 2007, and hold a leadership convention in April 2008. James Rodd took the job of interim leader after Dean Constable's resignation, and was elected leader on a permanent basis on April 4, 2009. He led the party into the 2011 election, where the party ran 14 candidates and was soundly defeated with 3.16% of the total vote or 5.84% in contested ridings. On February 8, 2012, Rodd announced that he would resign as leader. On October 13, 2012, the NDP elected Michael Redmond as the new leader