Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves says Central Kingstown MP, St. Clair Leacock, of the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), who will seek a fourth consecutive five-year term in office in the next general election, mainly attends funerals.
Gonsalves further suggested that opposition lawmakers could use their personal money or raise funds to execute projects in their constituencies.
“I will tell you this, I think in Central Kingstown, …what the persons were saying, what you can say for Leacock, he attends lots of funerals,” Gonsalves said on WE FM on Sunday, the day after Marvin Fraser, an IT specialist and sports administrator, was nominated, unopposed as the ULP’s candidate for Central Kingstown in the next general election.
“And of course, he will talk in Parliament, but in terms of getting things done, or to organise to get things done, there’s been great disappointment in that constituency, tremendous disappointment,” Gonsalves said of Leacock.
Leacock, a vice president of the NDP won Central Kingstown by 678 votes in November 2020, up from 516 in 2015.
He won the seat by 467 votes in 2010, having lost by 14 during his first attempt in 2005. He has said that he should be winning the seat by 1,000 votes.
Responding to Gonsalves’ comments, Joel Providence, one of the programme’s hosts, asked the PM whether he would say that it is difficult, the way how the system is set up, for opposition MPs to get the things done that he or she may wish to.
“You may say that,” the prime minister said. “When I was in the opposition, I had a construction brigade where we used to go and help people repair their houses on weekends.”
Gonsalves further said that while in opposition he paid EC$16,000 for land in South Rivers “and we were going to build a learning resource centre.
“But when I got into government, that’s the first one we built. We would not have been able to build one for $800,000, we might have raised money and build one and have community labour and build it for maybe $100,000 it would not have been such a magnificent edifice,” Gonsalves further said.
“There are things that should be done. I mean scholarships, arranging for students in primary school to get — there’re several students who got scholarships, either sponsored directly by me, but never bore my name, or by persons whom I got to sponsor.”
He said that current opposition MPs “think that their principal role is just to come to be in Parliament and talk.
“It is true that St. Clair Leacock would from time to time, very occasionally, make a call to me about trying to do something and so to [Fitz] Bramble and ‘Nature’ Stephenson will make use of programmes for students and the like, say through the Office of the Prime Minister,” he said of East Kingstown and South Leeward MP, both opposition lawmakers.
“They don’t use the machinery which exists; they definitely don’t,” Gonsalves said of the opposition.
Without any resources coming from the state except a meagre $1500.00 dollars to run a constituemcy office that cost a minimum of $2500.00 to run it monthly; how does this wicked man expect the opposition to do more in their constituencies?
Ralph you can say what you want, the only people that still believes in you are those that are living in denial and those that are lazy and love hand outs. You have outlived your usefulness to this country. I am of the view that the ulp must go into opposition so that they can rekindle their so call love for the people. I believe that after the ulp spend a good 10 years in opposition maybe then can we consider taking them serious again. For now they need to go, they have the mentality that this country can’t go on without them, and we have our selves to blame for that.
Its strange this … it can be recalled several years ago when Mr. Stephenson tried to patch the pot holes in the road (with conrete and the assistance of his constituents) that the talk was that they would be jailed for trying to assist …. conviniently once again is more rethoric
When all of government revenue is under ULP, what is Ralph Gonsalves talking about? There will be a day when SVG will regret having empowered ULP/Gonsalves to rule over them. There will come a day when the truth becomes known to all.
Such a hypocrite is he! All MPs are not lawyers like him or have professions that would allow them to be financially independent, so as to be able to help their respective constituencies. When the NDP advocated and requested of his Gov’t to establish the Constituency Development Fund to allow all MPs the latitude to assist their constituencies, he laughed at them. Boy, you are too bad-minded to live. Not another term for you!