Barbados Labour Party (BLP) Candidate for Christ Church East Central, economist Ryan Straughn, speaking during the opening of his Christ Church East Central campaign office.
THE key to economic recovery is resting in the hands of the young people of the nation.
This is the message the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) Candidate for Christ Church East Central, economist Ryan Straughn delivered to supporters, at the opening of his campaign office at Lodge Road, Christ Church.
He reminded those gathered that an economy only grows when young people leave school, enter the workforce and bring a demand for new goods and services.
However, Straughn said over the past ten years, opportunities have been snatched from the young people of Barbados, under the leadership of the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP).
“So throughout my campaign, you will hear me speaking specifically about young people. But I don’t want anybody to misunderstand my focus, because there is a connection in the household between the grandchild and the grandparent, and then obviously the parents in-between.
“And as you go through each and every household in this country, you have several overlapping generations. And so, when young people can grasp the opportunities that the Barbados Labour Party will now bring to the people of this country, we shall once again see the benefits of what our motto says, ‘Delivering a Better Life for Our People’,” he said.
The candidate who is running against Minister of Education Ronald Jones, said in the coming weeks he will be rolling out a number of developmental programmes for constituents.
He urged his colleagues to do the same in their constituencies, since such a cohesion and focus will be part of the reason the economy will recover faster than “we are now being led to believe”.
Straughn, who said his campaign team is ready for the upcoming General Election, indicated that he has observed that there is currently a serious lack of representation in the constituency he is wishing to represent. He said wherever he goes, there are signs of neglect.
“You have seen the neglect, you have smelt the neglect. The reason I have focused on that is because whilst we don’t smell it up here in Christ Church East Central, the reality is that what happens down there affects us up here, affects the people in St Lucy.
“So therefore, the focus of a representative at the heart of it is that we must try to mitigate those things that may not be immediately obvious to the people, but would have a clear and present danger to their livelihoods.
“And ladies and gentlemen, you have heard nothing of substance from any of the representatives of Christ Church, and certainly nothing from the representative of Christ Church East Central,” Straughn said. (AH)