Friday tells voters they are ‘the real boss’

Opposition Leader Godwin Friday on Tuesday told voters that they are the real bosses and they can demonstrate this by marking their ballots in Thursday’s general election.

Friday told New Democratic Party (NDP) supporters at a rally in Campden Park, told that serving the people of his constituency as MP and then the nation as leader of the party has been “the greatest honour of my life”.

He said the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines have shown him nothing but love and respect as he has moved across the country, adding that the feeling is mutual.

“I love you. I love this country, and I have given the last 25 years of my life in active service in the politics of this country,” said Friday, who is making his second attempt to take the NDP out of the political wilderness, where it has been for almost 25 years.

“There are those who will tell you, they will try to scare you, … about our being here as your representatives to carry the mantle of leadership forward,” he said.

Friday was apparently referring to the attempt by the ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP) to convince electors that a vote for Friday and the NDP’s East Kingstown candidate, Fitz Brmable, the incumbent MP, is a wasted vote because of their Canadian citizenship.

“But I want to give you this promise here tonight, I have been there with you for the past 25 years, and I will be with you as long as you choose to have me there going into the future,” said Friday, who has been living in SVG since 2000, when he returned from Canada, where he studied and worked.

“And anybody who wants to change that, they gotta come and meet me at the polling booth.”

The opposition leader said that the NDP has outlined its plans, which are based on consultations with the people.

“I have absolutely no doubt in the ability of my team in the practicality of our plans and the wisdom of the approach that we have chosen to lead this country once we form government,” Friday said.

“I believe we can do it. Of course, you will hear from the other side. They will frighten you and tell you things that you know in your heart are not true.”

He said the ULP was telling students that the NDP did not have their interest at heart, adding that the ULP had tried to do that during an interaction with students at the Community College on Tuesday morning.

“… the young people of this country, I had the opportunity to speak with them today at the Community College, and I want to thank you for the reception, the warm reception that you gave to my colleagues and I,” he said, adding that the conversation continued at a local restaurant.

“For those young people, you remind me, as if I needed reminding of why we put so much effort, why we put so much of our energy, our time, into serving this country,” he said, adding that the NDP sees in the nation’s youth what the country can be.

“And our job, our role, is to ensure that you have the opportunities that our generation perhaps didn’t have, that we leave the stage better, with you better prepared to take this country, this beautiful country of ours, forward. And we have no doubt that you will do so once you have been given the opportunity to equip yourselves to lead in the future that we all want to see.”

He said SVG has a lot of potential but some people will try to hold the country back and say that only they have the solutions.

“‘Only one man knows what ails this country and what the medicine is.’ But I tell you this, as you heard from my colleagues, one man can’t run this country forever, and we have better choices available for us, come next Thursday.

“On Thursday, we will have a chance, this Thursday, to elect a govenrment that has taken the time to udnerstnad the challenges facing out people, to listen to you, to know what you want to represent us about, to have the humility to say I may not have all the answers but I know where to look for them, and they are very often within the people whom we seek to serve,” Friday said.

He said there is no separation between the party and the people it seeks to represent.

“Some people, they want to call themselves the World Boss, but I say you are the real boss, and come Thursday, you will demonstrate that with that little pencil that you are given that is mightier than any bragging boast that you will have from those who have been in government for far too long and think that they own the country, that everything that is done must be with their bidding, and that they suck the honey and the sweetness from this country and the rest of us must take the crumbs.

“Well, too long inna that, as the people would say. We shall change that come Thursday, and you will do it with a vengeance, because there is a lot for us to be upset about. There’s a lot of disappointment and broken promises from this government.”

He said an NDP administration will handle crime, adding that the ULP has failed, having come to office promising to deal with crime.

“… crime has dealt very badly with us. Because what has happened is year after year, we have had record numbers of people, young people, in particular, killing one another.”

Friday, there are no more poor people in SVG than 10 years ago, and an International Monetary Fund study unemployment rate is now higher than when the ULP came to office in 2018, when a study was done.

“There’s a lot to be upset about this government and a lot of reasons to vote against them.

“We have the plans for the future of this country. They are based on our consultations with you. We are going to form government on Thursday, and I know there’ll be some celebration, but we are going to hit the ground running, because we have put in place a team that is capable of governing this country from day one.”

Friday said the NDP team was not put together just to win an election.

“It is not going to be a situation of one encyclopedia and the other copy books.

“We are going to have a government of capable and competent people who will have a voice that I will encourage because I know that two heads are better than one, and not only that, that 15 heads are better than the one — the old one we have now.

“So the long and the short of it is this: you have heard me say a lot on the campaign thus far. You have heard my colleagues who have repeated it over and over again, our primary responsibility is to make you safe, to create conditions so that you can enjoy a good life in this country. And that everyone should have an equal opportunity to benefit from the fruits of our labour, our collective labour. That we all should be able to get up in the beginning of the day and say that I enjoy going to my work because I know that I’m building something that is worthwhile, and I know that my work will not be in vain.

“We want to build a country in which the hospital and the health care system look after our people, and that the people when they get sick, they don’t have to fear going to the hospital.

“We want to build a country in which the education system caters to the needs of all of our people and to the needs of our society.”

He said the NDP will transform the education system in a way that takes the current system into account, but at the same time transform it so that the people are better skilled and equipped to deal with the challenges of the work that is needed to build this country.

“We can’t be spectators in our own country and expect that others will come and do the work for us. We must be the people who bring the change that our country needs. We must be the people who benefit from the change that we bring in this country. That is the vision that I offer in the new Democratic Party.”