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5 19 2011 1 22 49 pm 5558373 linton lewis 1 e1319732335187
NDP Chairman Dr. Linton Lewis.

KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent – New Democratic Party (NDP) chairman Linton Lewis has some words of comfort for teacher Elvis Daniel, who Housing Minister Clayton Burgin said should not re rehired after losing in the last general elections.

“I want to say to Daniel, I can understand Clayton Burgin making that statement. He doesn’t know better,” Lewis said at an NDP rally in Overland on Tuesday.

Burgin, speaking at a recent rally of the Unity Labour Party (ULP), said emphasised his position that Daniel, and two other teacher who ran on behalf of the NDP should not be rehired.

“You have to understand [that] he doesn’t know better,” Lewis further emphasised.

“… why should we should be concerned? Why should I be concerned?” said Burgin, who suggested that the NDP should make the teachers senators and the party’s research officer.

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“I said what I had to say sometime ago in Glen and I would stand by what I said,” said Burgin, a former teacher.

But Lewis, Lewis who has lost time to Burgin in general elections, said that Burgin’s comments did not come as a surprise.

“His statement is not anything new in East St. George; nobody is surprised by that,” Lewis said.

“Here you have a fellow who went into Calliaqua, [which] use to be the bastion of Labour. Because the people didn’t vote for him, he went on a truck and say ‘Now Calliaqua people, tek that in yo a…. East St. George, tek that in yo a….’ Now, I mean, if he says that in a constituency where he actually resides, what he says about the teacher is no surprise to us,” Lewis said.

“Because you have to understand, with a limited vocabulary, and a limited intellect, there is nothing much to say but to argue and to speak ill of the people in the New Democratic Party. You have to understand that,” said Lewis, a lawyer.

clayton burgin e1319732361476
Housing Minister Clayton Burgin .

“And my thing is this, sometimes you shouldn’t even worry about these things because if you say that Elvis Daniel is not a good math teacher and everybody else believe that Elvis Daniel is a good maths teacher, he is an embarrassment to the Unity Labour Party, he is an embarrassment to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and he is a great embarrassment to the people of East St. George,” Lewis added.

Burgin, former education minister, had noted that Daniel was reemployed in 2005 when he resigned to contest the elections.

“He think this thing is a pappy-show business?” he said, adding that Daniel gave up the students to run for elections.

He further asked his Daniel would have given up his seat and a ministerial position if he and the NDP had won the elections.

“If they want to say give him a job, say so. But don’t talk ‘bout he is a wonderful teacher,” added Burgin, a former teacher.

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