Central Kingstown MP St. Clair Leacock, a vice-president of the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), has made a case for the re-election of his Southern Grenadines colleague, Terrance Ollivierre.
Leacock said Ollivierre has represented well in Parliament the interest of his constituents, adding that Ollivierre had repeatedly advocated for secondary education in Canouan, which the government delivered in September 2019.
Leacock told an NDP campaign event in Union Island recently that Ollivierre, the NDP’s shadow minister for education, has done “gigantic work in education and people are too hard and unreasonable in their criticisms.
“Nobody, I don’t even believe Sir James, who brought all of this great infrastructure here or Eustace, or even Friday or myself, have been so consistent on speaking about the infrastructure and the lack of it in the Grenadines,” Leacock said, mentioning the past and current leaders of the NDP.Central Kingstown MP St. Clair Leacock, a vice-president of the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), has made a case for the re-election of his Southern Grenadines colleague, Terrance Ollivierre.
Leacock said Ollivierre has represented well in Parliament the interest of his constituents, adding that Ollivierre had repeatedly advocated for secondary education in Canouan, which the government delivered in September 2019.
Leacock told an NDP campaign event in Union Island recently that Ollivierre, the NDP’s shadow minister for education, has done “gigantic work in education and people are too hard and unreasonable in their criticisms.
“Nobody, I don’t even believe Sir James, who brought all of this great infrastructure here or Eustace, or even Friday or myself, have been so consistent on speaking about the infrastructure and the lack of it in the Grenadines,” Leacock said, mentioning the past and current leaders of the NDP.
“Terrance does bawl like cow to fix the wharves. He has complained about the dust when it’s dry and the muck when it’s wet … in Canouan…”
The government recently began to repair a temporary wharf in Canouan, which Ollivierre and other constituents had complained about, because of the dust when it is dry and the muck whenever it rains.
He has repeatedly highlighted the state of wharves generally in the Grenadines, which relies primarily on ferries to link the islands to Kingstown, the nation’s political and economic capital.
“The ports are in the same state and even wusserer (worse) than when he started to talk about them. And people are sitting down here and saying, Terence has not contributed?” Leacock said.
“I have heard Terrance deliver in the Parliament and maybe I didn’t see the actual water out he eyes, but I know he’s literally cried his belly out in pouring out for the people that he represented because he have them always close to his heart.”
Ollivierre will seek a sixth consecutive five-year term in a general election widely expected by November, ahead of the February 2026 constitutional deadline.
However, sources tell iWitness News that some NDP supporters in the constituency feel that the party should field a different candidate.
At the same time, the ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP) has announced that Edwin Snagg, who has lost five times to Ollivierre, will not contest the next vote.
However, Leacock batted for Ollivierre, saying that Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves “like he feel he could trick God and all”.
The NDP VP, who will seek a fourth term as an MP, said that some people “like to forget things, … but we have to be a grateful people, a grateful nation”.
He pointed out that Ollivierre and former North Leeward MP, Roland “Patel” Matthews, “cut short some of their university studies … to give at a youthful stage their lives for the advancement of St. Vincent and Grenadines”. I
He was speaking of the decision by Ollivierre and Matthews to return home from university to contest the 2001 election, in which Ollivierre was successful and Matthews lost.
“It sounds easy saying it that way as I have said it, but they did so at that time when the other side was at the strongest and worst behaviour ever in our history.
“They, therefore, didn’t see themselves coming in to get a gold spoon and the life of luxury… They came because they thought, as young men, it was a part of their responsibility to recover the rich history and legacy of the New Democratic Party from a bunch of iniquitous individuals who were determined, hell-bent to destroy what we are so carefully and skilfully crafted for the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. that’s the sacrifice.”
Leacock said Ollivierre and Matthews did not enter politics because they felt they had an entitlement.
“Terrance, has done justice to representing the cause of education in St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” Leacock said.
He said the MP is always “… shading, highlighting, researching this work, that work and the other work, always for a single purpose: to advance the young people of his constituency and of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.”
Ollivierre maintained Canouan must get secondary school
Saying that he would be specific, Leacock said that even as he was rebuffed repeatedly, Ollivierre had maintained that it would be better for Canouan children to get their secondary education on the island.
“And he has said so not just in terms of the fact that it will be easier because they wouldn’t have to commute, or that it will be cheaper, but he had looked and paid attention to the social issues on mainland St. Vincent that a lot of our young students, especially our female, had to undergo when they were in the charge of others.”
He said Ollivierre had suggested that a hostel be built in St. Vincent so that students from the Grenadines can be under proper care and protection.
“Today, that still has not materialised,” Leacock said.
“But you can see how the same people who could not appreciate the vision and the forward thinking of Terrance at that time were quick today to hustle and herd their people on mainland St Vincent for their personal self-interest.”
He was speaking about the relocation of hundreds of people from the Southern Grenadines to St. Vincent after the passage of Hurricane Beryl, which damaged or destroyed 95% of the buildings in the district on July 1.
“The same effort, the same cost, the same drives, the same initiative could have been lent years ago to have Southern Grenadines children in better and proper accommodation in St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” Leacock said.
“But, today it is self-serving and self-serving in the worst way possible because they want to manipulate the situation to gain a vote or two…
“Ralph and company are the most … transactional government ever, and the worst in the Caribbean. … Everything you do is for something else. Everything you do is for a vote,” he said.
NDP treats the Grenadines as equals
Leacock noted that SVG is a multi-island state, adding the Caribbean experience is that in such a situation, the people of the smaller islands “have to be constantly struggling to keep their head above water and to be treated with the self-respect that they deserve.
“It is the New Democratic Party that got closest to get rid of this notion that some are more equal than others, and to bring respect to the people and to the level the playing field.”
Leacock pointed out that Central Kingstown and the Southern Grenadines were created after independence, adding that while the Kingstown seat has switched among political parties, Southern Grenadines has remained with the NDP.
“But Terrance, to sustain what Mitchell created and what Eustace supported and what Friday building upon, has always been looking for ways for the development of this Southern Grenadines.”
The Grenadines has no municipal supply of water and residents collect rainwater in cisterns.
“In the last election, he promoted and featured the architectural designs for your waterways. He’s in the parliament championing the cause of your fishermen and women,” Leacock said of Ollivierre.
“He been talking about how you can do more in the area of tourism that brings a dollar in the pockets of all and sundry. I don’t know of a southern Grenadines issue which Torrance has not at one time and or the other addressed.
“And we must be fair to him, and we must reward him, and he must return him to the Parliament of St. Vincent the Grenadines in larger numbers.”
Leacock said the ULP has rejected his proposed constituency development fund, which will finance small projects in constituencies.
“And therefore, when all of the other sides reject that out of hand, you are left with no choice to reject them, too,” Leacock said.
“And anyone who enters the political conversation and does and or says or contributes against that cardinal principle to create the slightest of opportunity for that iniquitous group of people called the ULP to slip in, then they are doing a disservice to their own people.
“They have to see Labour in name — In fact, the only show on the road is the New Democratic Party …” Leacock said.
Leacock expressed confidence that the NDP will win the next general election.
“And it will be unfortunate if, when we strengthen we self and we learn from you and we big up weself, and we improve ourselves and increase ourselves, that thing slip way dowm here,” he said and asked constituents to promise him that that would not happen.
Full article at IWN
