11th Feb. 2010

CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

It is my pleasure to be here tonight.  It has been a good campaign.  As we near the home stretch, we should remain positive, hopeful, focused and watchful.  The devil and his cabinet are always busy.

From a public platform in Elizabeth, the Prime Minister said that the PLP is confused.  The PLP is not confused.  The only one confused in Elizabeth is the Prime Minister and his party.

Anyone who could come to office, and scuttle a project out at Cable Beach that would have produced 8000 jobs is confused.

And the confusion does not stop with Mr. Ingraham.

How can it be possible for a good doctor, with special skills needed in the hospital agree to leave the job where he is needed for one where he is not needed, unless there is confusion.

How can he agree to join a team, headed by a man who helped to scuttle a project that is the lifeblood of his own family, if there were not confusion?

How does that happen?

Let us help to end the confusion of the FNM’s candidate by keeping him in the hospital where he belongs.

Only one party in this race is confused.  That party is the FNM.  What else could there be when Carl Bethel, their Chairman, attacks the PLP’s commercials for saying that they cancelled the scholarship programme, and then in his own speech says the following: 300 new applicants for scholarships will not get them and the programme has had to be cancelled.

That sounds like confusion to me.

The PLP has been telling them to start a new programme for supporting young people in school.  Education is the only sure key to rising out of poverty.  When I left high school in 1970, I did not have to consider one wit about paying for school fees for college.  The government paid.  That was in the glory days of the PLP.  Today, the country has more resources available to it and yet Mr. Ingraham argues that we cannot afford to send our children to school.  Surely, the Prime Minister is confused about his priorities.

The priorities should be in this order: health care and education.  Education and health care.  If you fix those things, all else will work and work well.

There is only one party in this country that is confused and that is the FNM.

Surely, the FNM’s candidate for Elizabeth is confused when he cannot even remember that he opposed National Health Insurance.  Did you read the paper today, where the FNM candidate claimed that he did not oppose National Health Insurance?  Now you and I all heard him oppose National Health Insurance.  He was on the radio and on the television.  We all saw him leading the fight to stop you from getting National Health Insurance.

The real question then for the people of Elizabeth is, are you better off than you were two and half years ago?  Two and half years ago, your mortgage was up to date.  Your children’s school fees were paid, there was money in the bank, your car payments were up to date, and you had a job.  Two and a half years later, those things have gone up in smoke.

In my own constituency and in this constituency, the new voters have stopped me to say we have been trying to find a job and we go out every day, and we have all our education and health certificates, and we are honest, and we have a clean police record, yet we cannot find a job.  What do we do?

I think part of the answer must be to send a message to this confused government that we have.  That message is that Ryan Pinder is the best man for this new job that is now open.  He will work for you on the environment in Elizabeth, on the economy, and on jobs.  In two years time, you will have a chance to say whether or not he has performed.

Ryan Pinder is a decent young man.  He is a hard worker.  He is not confused.  He is Bahamian.  Ryan Pinder is Bahamian and people who keep bringing up this business about his Bahamianess should not go down that road.  There is no legal impediment for his serving and he has no divided loyalties.  Those who seek to go down that road are going down a false road that leads nowhere.  As the kids say: don’t go there!

There is only one party that is confused in this race.  This is the party that now runs the government.  They gave the customs officers a raise to eliminate the shift system. The FNM government claims that each customs officer got a minimum of $400 per month raise.  The only problem is that 117 of them fell through the cracks and there are some junior officers who are making more than senior customs officers.  This is causing confusion in customs.  No Mr. Ingraham it is not we who are confused.  It is your government that is a total ball of confusion.

Today you are setting the Haitians free.  Tomorrow you are locking them up.  Today you are giving out scholarships; tomorrow you are cancelling the scholarships.  Today you are having rallies.  Tomorrow you are not having rallies.  Today you are for attacking the PLP for not disclosing, then the next day you agree that you, yourself have not disclosed.  Sounds like there is only one party in this race that is confused and that is the FNM.

Join us on Tuesday and help to bring an end to Mr. Ingraham and his confusion, vote for Ryan Pinder and the PLP.

I have had the enormous pleasure and honour of meeting you the people of Elizabeth in your homes and I look forward to continuing to talk to you.

Thank you and good night.
PLP ALL THE WAY!