The Unity Labour Party (ULP) on Saturday selected Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves as its candidate for North Central Windward in the next general elections, with his son, Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves, 53, saying that the 79-year-old leader “still ha’ more energy than all ah we”.
The ULP will face the electorate in general elections widely expected this year, ahead of the February 2026 constitutional deadline.
The party, which came to office in March 2001, will be seeking a sixth consecutive term in office, with Gonsalves at its helm for almost all of the 27 years since a merger between his fringe party, the Movement for National Unity and the St. Vincent Labour Party resulted in the formation of the ULP.
Saturday’s constituency conference was also a celebration of Gonsalves’ 79th birthday, which came one day earlier.
“… we’re celebrating a birthday. We’re celebrating his nomination and acceptance as the candidate for North Central Windward,” the younger Gonsalves told party supporters and media audiences.
“We’re celebrating the vision and accomplishments of the Unity Labour Party, and we’re pre-celebrating for the victory that is coming later this year.”
The finance noted that his father turned 79 on Thursday, adding, “and he still ha’ more energy than all ah we”.
Camillo Gonsalves’ comments echoed a comment that his father often makes, that he has “the youngest brain” in his Cabinet, whose youngest members are in their mid-30s.
The finance minister said that the prime minister’s age also reminds him of 1979, noting that the older Gonsalves has contested every general election in St. Vincent and the Grenadines since that year.
The prime minister has been representing North Central Windward since 1994, and the finance minister said that the NDP has run 10 different candidates in the last 10 elections in the district.
“They don’t have anybody rooted in North Central Windward who will bear the slings and arrows and work for the people. They try a thing, they lose, they gone. They try a next thing,” Camillo GOnsalves said.
“But, Ralph Gonsalves has stayed with you through defeats, through victory, through hard times and good times. He has been with you as your friend and your partner and your leader in North Central Windward and in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”
The finance minister, who was elected MP for East St. George in 2015, said his first political speech was as a 7-year-old boy in Park Hill in 1979.
This was followed by a speech in Colonarie and then another in Georgetown.
He said his father was 33 at the time.
“Nobody wasn’t following him. I was his child so I had to talk. And we used to go around other places in the country to share his vision,” Camillio Gonsalves said, adding that his father was fresh from university “and people wasn’t trying to hear him yet.
“… it was me, Julian Francis and Ralph Gonsalves. That’s the public meeting.”
Francis, one of the prime minister’s first cousins, was a ULP senator and minister from March 2001 to July 2023, a year after he suffered a stroke.
“And you’ll get a little car battery and put two horns on the roof of a car, and he would say, ‘Camillo, say the prayer. And then he will say, ‘Camillo, you is the MC.’
“And Julian say, ‘I ain’t talking.’ So he’s the one speaker.”
Camillo Gonsalves said he would tell his father that no one was listening to them, but he would respond that people were listening from inside their homes.
“And I said, ‘But nobody ain’t dey here.’ And he said, ‘They’re listening, man, because I have a message to give to the people, and even if I have to give it to them one by one, I will make sure that everybody in St. Vincent and the Grenadines hears my message and my vision for the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”
The finance minister said no weapon formed against the prime minister would prosper “because he is here to lift up and advance the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. He’s doing God’s work.”
The finance minister then went on to misquote the scripture, saying, “And when Jesus preached the Beatitudes, he said, ‘Blessed are ye that men may revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely, rejoice my friends and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward. For though that’s what they did to prophets before me and you.’
“And great is his reward. And great has been his reward as the representative of North Central Windward and the representative of St. Vincent and the Grenadines as its leader. And great shall be the reward again, when he is re-elected.”
However, Jesus did not say that one is blessed simply because they are reviled, but they are blessed if they are reviled for his sake.”
tank de makker fo pammpeerss
It’s the “…went on to misquote the scripture…” for me!
SMH
South Rivers was the cradle for his career and the only people who listened to him from day one.
The pivotal role that South Rivers has played in the establishment of such an illustrious career cannot be erased in this manner. An apology is in order.
Camillo got some basic facts wrong:
1. South Rivers gave a listening ear from day 1.
2. Julian first appeared after NDP won in 1984.
3. Ralph got 500+ votes in ‘79 & 800+ in ‘84 & ‘89.
South Rivers has never gotten the respect it deserved in helping Ralph politically but ah so it go.
The finance noted that his father turned 79 on Thursday, adding, “and he still ha’ more energy than all ah we”. Yes Camillo, he has more energy that you all in the ULP, because you and the rest of the pack are from the series” The Living Dead” coming to an election in SVG, soon.