Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Freundel Stuart is greeted by cheering supporters at last night’s presentation of candidates for the 2018 General Election.
PRIME Minister the Right Honourable Freundel Stuart is sticking to his word that, despite working against the odds, the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) has delivered for Barbados.
This is why he is asking Barbadians who have shown patience in difficult circumstances, to vote for the DLP when they go to the polls on May 24.
“The record of the Democratic Labour Party in Barbados is far superior to that of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP). The fingerprints of the Democratic Labour Party can be found in every aspect of this country’s life.
“Therefore, we have to protect the Democratic Labour Party from the slandering of our opponents in the Barbados Labour Party. Our work is not yet complete. We still have other things we have to do in Barbados…,” he said, urging Barbadians to go out and vote in their numbers to return the DLP to government.
Speaking at the presentation of DLP candidates for the 2018 General Election, last , at the Bay Street Esplanade, Stuart reminded Barbadians that the Administration which he leads is providing housing solutions for families; overseeing the introduction of an Employment Act; passing the Sexual Harassment Bill; making amendments to the Domestic Violence Legislation; appointing teachers, and 600 public workers while another 300 more are in the pipeline.
He said his government has also added offshore medical education, a creative industry and renewal energy, to the country’s sector industry.
“All of these things happened in Barbados before your very eyes. An enlightened government was busy looking after your interest and promoting the objective society for which purpose the Democratic Labour Party was called in the first place.
“And tonight Barbados is a just society, after ten years of Democratic Labour Party ruling, than it was in 2008 when we came into office. Let me make that clear. And when we came into office, against the odds, the world plunged into a deep financial crisis in the last quarter of 2007, we came in in January 2008. The previous administration did not have to deal with any of that crisis at all.
“At the height of that crisis, as many as 750 000 workers were losing their jobs in the United States per month. The British economy contracted and only in the second quarter of 2015 got back to the size it was at in 2008, that’s how serious that crisis was,” Stuart reminded the crowd that gathered at the Esplanade.
Prime Minister Stuart, who is the candidate for St Michael South, also said that the DLP was instrumental in saving the financial service sector through putting appropriate measures in place to stop businesses from leaving the island.
“As a result of decisions taken in Canada, in order to save the financial business and financial businesses service sector here, we had to put measures in place to ensure that businesses that had started to leave Barbados from that sector … We had saved the sector and that sector is well on its way back to a state of vibrancy. But those are decisions we had to take…,” he said.
“I cannot stand before you tonight and say if I had to do it all over again, I would do it differently. I frankly believe that there comes a time in the life of a country, there comes a time in the experience of a country, when people have to stop and determine whether their individual interests are to be elevated above the interest of the majority of people.
“We took the position that the interest of Barbados required that we hold our social services intact and ask who could afford it to pay a bit more,” Prime Minister Stuart added as he delivered his firing speech. (AH)