Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves is urging Vincentians to return the Unity Labour Party (ULP) to a sixth consecutive five-year term in office, saying his father, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, should be allowed to continue implementing his vision for the country.
The younger Gonsalves told ULP supporters in Colonarie, his father’s home village, that the prime minister’s vision for the country includes revolutionising access to education and housing and transforming the economy.
“I want to talk to you tonight about how a vision takes you from one place to the next place, not commess, not bad mind, not pull down; good over evil, positive over negative, life over death, progress over backwardness,” he said during a recent campaign event.
“And I will tell you how the vision takes us from where we were to where we are and where we are going to be,” he said, noting that Barbados recently had a conversation about whether to continue its policy of free university education for its people.
“But our issue was whether people could even reach secondary school,” he said, adding that before the ULP implemented universal access to secondary education in 2005, only four out of 10 students leaving primary school went to a secondary school.
“Six out of 10 had to suck salt from a wooden spoon. They either go to senior 1, senior 2, senior 3, or they, as prime minister say, they go away and look for opportunity elsewhere,” he said.
The finance minister said that at the time, the opposition’s policy was to implement universal access to secondary education by 2030.
“Could you imagine, for the last 25 years, your children can’t go to secondary school if you didn’t re-elect this man with his vision?
“Ralph Gonsalves is the man who make your children go to secondary school. Ralph Gonsalves is the man who make your children go to university. Ralph Gonsalves is the man who had that vision,” he said, one day after the prime minister turned 79.
The finance minister said that SVG was not properly connected by air, adding that to reach SVG, “you had to stop in Barbados and sit down there and wait five and six hours to catch the LIAT to come across.
“… Sometimes, the LIAT ain’t come, you had to overnight — come the next day,” he said of the prime minister, who was a longstanding chair of the shareholder government of the regional airlines, which was notorious for its financial problems and poor service before it collapsed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“And he (PM Gonsalves) said, ‘I will build an international airport at Argyle. That was another vision.”
Camillo Gonsalves said that during the construction of the airport, the NDP said that they would shut it down and complete it in 2030.
“And Ralph Gonsalves was the man with the vision to build that international airport that has brought all of the economic growth in recent years to St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”
He said the prime minister also had a vision for housing, “where we will guarantee the right to housing for every Vincentian; we will build you a house if you can’t afford to build a house.
“And if your house is weak and broken, we will give you building materials to strengthen your house. And if you dey pon piece ah squat land, we will give you title to that land for 10 cents a square foot.
“The NDP, in all their years in office, never built a single house for a single Vincentian. We have built thousands of houses for Vincentians. That, again, is Ralph Gonsalves’ vision.”
The finance minister said it is a lie to say all politicians and political parties are the same.
“This party and this leader have vision and purpose, and the other one have commess (gossip) and bad mind,” he said.
“And there’s a big difference, because you can’t build a country on commess and you can’t build a nation on bad mind. You need vision and plans and energy and will and skill to come forward and build your nation.”
He said the prime minister also had a vision for healthcare in SVG.
“… they only had three state-owned pharmacies in St. Vincent and the Grenadines when he was elected. Now we have over 40. And he built clinics in every village so that there’s a nurse or a doctor within 10 minutes of anybody anywhere aryo dey St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“… And he brought ambulances into this country. Before ambulances, when a man fall down and break he hip, break he back, you throw him in the back a pickup truck, and you carry him where you could carry him out for the best.”
He said the prime minister committed to building an acute referral hospital in Arnos Vale, but the opposition said that healthcare should be privatised.
“And you know what that means? That they putting profit over people. Because if you privatise a hospital, the first thing they’re going to do when you walk in the hospital, they will ask you how much money you have.
“And the care that you get will be based on how much money you have. And they will put private hospitals for the wealthy and rich to get good health care, and the poor and the vulnerable get nothing.”
Camillo Gonsalves said that the vision is important because the prime minister says healthcare is the cornerstone of our nation’s prosperity.
“Health care is what is going to make us strong, what will make us powerful and make us resilient to face the future challenges that come. They say health care is something just for rich people.”
The finance minister also said the opposition said they would cap foreign direct investment.
“We have gotten investments in this country in hundreds of millions of dollars. The Sandals Resorts in Buccament is the finest Sandals anywhere in the entire Caribbean. …
“They say they want to cap investment. … They say, if you have too much investment, you can have too many big corporations, and people go to the corporation instead of to the politician. So wah wrong with that? We are not elected to be kings. We are elected to be servants, and we serve the people of this country in every possible way — by creating jobs, by creating opportunities and by creating a better future. And that is our vision.
“We don’t say stop investment. We say more pon more. Bring more investment. We create more jobs and create more opportunities for Vincentians. That again, is the vision of Ralph Gonsalves, in contrast to the vision of the New Democratic Party.”
“Continue to implement his vision.” King Ralph, 1st servant to the people, has a vision? Oh yes he does. Wreck the economy, wreck farming, wreck the infrastructure of the nation. His constituency is the poorest in the nation, yes he wants a 6th term.
We are getting ambulances, but check how many are parked up at the hospital park lot or at the police garage in Arnos Vale. We are not elected to be kings, plural, so Camillo probably thinks he is a king, along with the other ulp”ites”, hence the motorcade king Ralph travels with and the changing of vehicle evey 4 years, yet poor are struggling.
All hail king Ralph.
All the above mentioned have been great achievements made to SVG. I in particular grateful for AlA because I’ve experienced back in the days had to struggle to get back home from another Country. In addition thanks for the Education Revolution to the Nation and the upgrade of the Medical Services and garbage Collection and housing provided to the poor. I also want to thank the Prime Minister for the building of the Rabacca Bridge, because it’s a bigs difference to the development of the country. I wish it had been built before when I was growing up. ♥️🇻🇨🇬🇧
These statement are very strange seeing half of the Vincentian youth are unemployed.
Yes, E Abbot , you must come home and admitted to the hospital as a patient or anyone of your family., then I know you will change your tune.
How much longer he want to implement vision?
Time for a Change!
E.Abott so the Airport alone justify 6 in a row? That an illogical assumption. How about the other economic metrics they count for nothing? That’s a myopic way of thinking. However, there is an old adage that says one is entitled to their. Own opinion not the facts.