Velox paints Camillo as aloof, disconnected from constituents

The opposition New Democratic Party’s Laverne Gibson-Velox has described Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves as “aloof”, “petty”, “disrespectful” and disconnected from constituents in East St. George. 

“I just want to say that the pleasure is mine to have served you, even though I am not in government,” said Gibson-Velox, who is making her second bid to unseat Gonsalves.

Some political observers have said that the finance minister is favoured by his father, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, 79, to succeed him in that position even as he faces challenges getting the ruling Unity Labour Party to coalesce around the East St. George MP.

“I have been serving you for over five years, and I have been doing so with nothing,” Gibson-Velox said at a campaign event in Glen.

In 2020, Gibson-Velox, a retired banker and first-time candidate, came within 196 votes of unseating Gonsalves, who won the seat in 2015 by 607 votes in a four-way race.

“East St. George, over the last five years, I have been representing you in the absence of proper representation from the person that you elected,” Gibson-Velox said.

“He has left you for dead, literally. He has abandoned you. He has neglected you, he has left you out to pasture, and you have to do the right thing and change him. Get rid of him, because he does nothing for you, and he does nothing for the constituency.”

She said the constituency is stagnated despite its potential, adding that people were still living in shelters as they await repair of their homes, one year after they were damaged by Hurricane Beryl on July 1, 2024. 

“It is time for people to get back to some form of normalcy in this country,” Gibson-Velox said.

What your representation is amounts to nil, nothing, zilch. You get nothing from Camillo Gonsalves. He is just like a figurehead. He has the position, but he don’t have the action to go with the position.”

Health centres not repaired, 5 years later

Gibson-Velox said that the NDP’s PR team does not need to produce another mini-manifesto for East St. George this election.

“… this one (from 2020) is still applicable. He has done absolutely nothing to better your lives and to improve on anything in East St. George.”
The challenger said she actually inspired the MP to work. “I walk around and I take videos, and once I post the video … and people respond to it, you see they go and fix roads and they patch roads.”

She said this was the case with the boardwalk in Villa. 

“Had I not posted that video, y’all will still be scrambling up some little stone path trying to find your way,” Gibson-Velox said.

“Camillo Gonsalves is a total waste of time. They have given him that position of Minister of Finance so that he could be elevated,” she said, adding that in Parliament, government MPs repeatedly thank Gonsalves for approving monies for projects.

“And it’s just to make him seem like if he’s doing something, but he is not doing anything.”

She said she was happy to hear the finance minister refer to Budget 2024 as “an East St. George budget”. 

“Well, that East St. George budget amounted to absolutely nothing. Nothing has been done in East St. George.

 Twice today I fell into a deep hole right by the Mayers’ residents, just passed where Milton Cato used to live — a deep hole that’s on the highway into Kingstown.”

Project cost moves from $2.2m to $8m

Gibson-Velox said she got West Kingstown MP, Daniel Cummings, to ask in Parliament questions about things related to East St. George.

“Now, Camillo wants to know, what is Mr. Cummings’ interest in East St. George? Well, yes, he has a friend who has been asking him to ask questions.”

She said it is through those questions that the public found out that Rainforest Seafood, a Jamaican company with a base in Calliaqua, is going to be retailing fish.

Gibson-Velox said this is in direct competition with the fishermen in East St. George, who are based in Calliaqua.

“How did we find out that the Calliaqua project, which was supposed to be $2.2 million, ended up at around $8 million? Hw does that happen? … It means that he is not paying attention.”

Gibson-Velox said there is no proper planning and Gonsalves hardly goes around the constituency.

“… he went to a man in Brighton the other day, introducing himself as the representative. The man tell him no, ‘I met the new representative. She came by to see me some time ago.’”

Gibson-Velox said politics is not just for three months before a general election.

“Politics is 365 days a year, every year, because the people of the constituency voted for you to represent them in Parliament. They voted for you to take their problems to the Parliament to get them fixed — if it’s housing, if it’s roads, whatever it is. 

“But you are not doing that. … You just in there to be, you know, every now and again, you hear him with some sarcasm and some condescending remark. 

“What is that about? He’s very disrespectful. He was so disrespectful that when he won the seat, he did not even go around thanking people for voting for him. He sent people out to say, ‘Thank you.’”

Gibson-Velox said that, on the other hand, she went around and thanked everyone for voting for her.

She said the NDP’s team for the general election is “strong” and “formidable”.

“We are a team that gel and we make decisions that are in the best interest of the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. I am proud to be a part of that team, but I am even prouder to be the new Democratic Party’s representative for East St. George.”

MP ‘disconnected from the people’

Gibson-Velox said she has walked around the constituency and met the people.

“If y’all were paying attention, you see how many people come and kiss and hug me here tonight. That is not any fly-by-night thing. That is genuine love, because I have developed relationships with the people of East St. George,” she said at the campaign event.

“The elected representative is disconnected from the people. He has no relationships with them. Y’all know that he would give you a number, and nobody ever answers it. 

“… You could call that number until you sick; nobody answers it. He drives through the constituency with his windows up. Don’t care how you call out, he ain’t hearing you. He does not care…

“He has been living a lie. He has not been very honest with the people of East St. George and because of everything that I have just said, he deserves to be booted out of East St. George. It’s time.”

Gibson-Velox promised to serve constituents.

“You have seen me operate in this constituency. You have seen me on the back of Natty’s truck handing out fowl; you have seen me driving around with boxes of eggs, giving out to people,” she said. 

Gibson-Velox said that when the MP attends an event in the constituency, such as the opening of the football competition, “you never see him chatting with people. 

“He’s off some place with a camera taking pictures because he does not want to mix with you. He is very aloof. He does not want to be friendly with you. He does not want to develop relationships within East St. George. 

“This man is not representative material. He is not, and his father systematically did what he had to do to bring him right up to Minister of Finance.”

Gibson-Velox described herself as “a very hands-on person”, noting that Central Kingstown MP and NDP Vice President, St. Clair Leacock, had spoken about meeting her broom in hand after the bank she was managing had been flooded by heavy rains.”