No one can say Leacock is not a good MP — Friday

Opposition Leader Godwin Friday has rubbished Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves’ suggestion that Central Kingstown MP, St. Clair Leacock, an opposition lawmaker, is not a good parliamentary representative.

“… who, in their right mind, will ever, could ever say that?” the opposition leader said on Monday on his weekly radio show on NICE Radio.

“A man like Major who has been representing his constituency at the very, very highest level, with energy and consistent support all the way around, and building support all the time, that shows that he has been effective,” Friday said of Leacock.

“And in government, he will help a lot more. So, all of that is just distraction, as I say, and seeking to try to diminish our accomplishments and trying to exaggerate theirs.”

Leacock, one of Friday’s two vice presidents of the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), is carded to seek a fourth consecutive five-year term as MP for Central Kingstown, in general elections, widely expected by November this year, but constitutionally due by February 2025.

Friday said the NDP is “seeking to send the message loud and clear to the people of this country that we are at a crossroad.

“There’ll be all kinds of mischief that the present government [will make]… They will try to minimise this and carry on telling you … they’re making inroads here, and they’re going down the Southern Grenadines every Saturday, and think that somehow that can make people feel that they have delivered for them after Beryl. Them, things don’t happen. People are smarter than that.”

Speaking on Sunday after the ruling Unity Labour Party’s (ULP) candidate selection conference in Central Kingstown, Gonsalves said on WE FM that people were saying that Leacock mainly attends funerals.

The prime minister also suggested that opposition lawmakers could use their own resources and raise funds to do things in their constituencies.

Gonsalves, a lawyer, said that when he was an opposition MP, he gave EC$16,000 to buy land for a learning resource centre in South Rivers and had a brigade that repaired houses on weekends.

However, the opposition leader said that Gonsalves’ comments were meant to distract the electorate from the reality of the country.

“But the people see it all around,” he said, adding, “… the homicide is a little bit lower than has been in recent years, but crime in general is still a serious problem”.

Friday shared what he said was an experience he had recently with a young man from Greiggs who asked him to focus on feeder roads in farm communities.

He said the young farmer told him that in many instances large trees are now growing in what used to be farm roads.

“… who fool people say young people not interested in farming? He’s a young man. He said, ‘I can’t get access to my lands, I can’t get access, affordable access, because you can get there, but if you pay people by foot and so to carry things, it makes it more expensive.”

Friday said that an NDP government would address the challenges that farmers are facing “and let them know that we rely on them to help us to rebuild this country.

“It has to be a partnership. You can’t just simply expect them to perform and every day,” he said.

The opposition leader said Agriculture Minister Saboto Caesar’s approach to the sector is to have an announcement every Monday morning about a short-lived project or initiative.

Friday, however, said a plan is needed for a sustainable industry and productive agriculture industry that earns a living for the people going forward.

He said he also had a conversation with a fisherman who asked about the assistance that the government was offering fisherfolk move to the next level.

“And they feel that the government is not serious in terms of providing financial support, providing by way of concessions in terms of equipment and all this stuff that they need to be able to build an industry, again, that is more productive,” the opposition leader said.

“We can’t keep doing the same thing the same way all the time and expect to get ahead. Everybody else is doing things better, more efficiently, and when they do that, they become more competitive than us.”

Friday said there was talk that big buyers cannot afford to pay fisherfolk EC$8 for a pound of conch, with some of them offering EC$6.

 “That is just ripping the seabed and clearing it out and still fisher folk aren’t any further ahead because they aren’t making any more money.”

He said the government need to help people become more productive and improve their techniques, whether in fishing or farming.

“Get bigger boats. This is what the guys were telling me,” he said, adding that in instances where fishers buy or build bigger boats, they cannot afford the equipment that would allow them to spend more time at sea.

“They can’t go and borrow from the bank, because the bank ain’t go look at them, and they don’t have a National Development Bank, as we intend to put in place, to be able to get the money necessary to borrow,” Friday said.

“So that is how we intend to transform the economy in this country and I believe that the people recognise that we are looking for ways, always, always looking for ways to help them so that they can help themselves; not that we are government that basically just do handouts, and then you expect people to come and genuflect to you, because you give them a $300 here and a $300 there.

“That’s well and good, but it doesn’t make a living. And so, we have to give people the power, the means, as James Mitchell did in the time of NDP, to be able to transform their own lives when NDP was in government. That is a plan. It’s not rocket science.”