We are ready to unleash the potential of the north

(Excerpts of Political Leader of the NDP Dr Godwin Friday’s Presentation at the opening of the North Leeward Constituency Office)
I want this country to live up to its potential, where the genius of our people is evident every day in the things that we do. We are capable of much more than we have now. Much more capable.
They’re those people who try to dumb us down and to make us think that they are the smartest. They know more than everybody. And the people who used to go to school with them will tell you that they used to beat them in school. The point of the matter is this, all of us have potential, all of us have something to offer. And when we all put it together and we have a system that values the contribution of everybody, we will go much further.
They say if you want to go fast, you run alone. If you want to go far, you go together. That is what we are going to do on under a New Democratic Party administration. I promise you this, dear people, that potential that we have, we want to see it realized and we will do so. We have the team in place in which to do it. When I tell you about North Windward and North Leeward, the Northern part of the country, Shevern told you just now about the plan that we have for the development of the North. Dr. Shallow told you about the plans that he has for the development here in North Leeward.
What we have envisioned is not just simply a development of the existing industries. We are talking, yes, of getting those things going, but also thinking of new industries, new economic opportunities that can transform this northern part of the country. Patel told you about the potential of tourism here. Well, why has it not been developed?
Because everybody looked down to the Grenadines and said that’s where tourism resides. But we could do it here. And what we have done, we have come up with a plan for the development. We call it the Northern Development Plan, for the northern part of the country. And that includes all the things we have spoken about, but it includes more than a vision of developing tourism.
You heard Dr. Shallow talked about the vision of having a cannabis village. I am not afraid to say that I’m in favour of the legalization of marijuana in this country. And to have that as an industry that can be done to create wealth and opportunity for our people. This is what the CARICOM Commission had recommended. And, we are working along with that to see to what extent we can get it done now and how we can do with it in the future. There is a lot of potential there. We are going to create an environment in the north where you have better communication through a ferry service from this side of the country to Owia on the other side, but not that alone.
We want to have a connection between the North and St. Lucia as well, and create the potential for economic synergies that we have not been able to imagine yet. I talked to some friends of mine and I say, who could have imagined? I couldn’t. At the time that I used to go to Grammar School, I came up on Friendship Rose back and forth. You could never have imagined that you’d have a ferry service running between Bequia and Kingstown where you have a boat almost every hour where all of this stuff is going up and down, where new businesses are created. Now, you have people going down to Bequia not just to do business, but to go to the beach to have a nice time on the weekend where the cruise ships coming in and full boatload of people going down.
You could not have conceived of it. So let us not limit our imagination when we talk about developing the north to thinking what exists now. Think about what is possible. And that is what I want to unleash in this part of the country.
And I promise you that we will because we have the team in which to do so. You have Dr. Shallow as somebody who has proven, a person of great ability, somebody of talent and also the desire to do good in the region and here in his community. Give him the opportunity to do so. And I am sure that he will not let you down. And we will see the transformation of the communities here in the northern part of the country.
So my dear people, I want to sum up by saying this. Listen to me. This is what we have in store. You talk about reasons why NOT to vote for the ULP. Fitz outlined them in detail, very eloquently. Well, I give you three reasons now that you VOTE for the NDP.
One, we have the better team. There’s no doubt about that. And two, we have the better plan. There’s no doubt about that. They don’t even have a plan. They just do one thing, one thing, one thing here and there. We have the better plan. And three, we have the better leader who has a vision that will transform this country. And with all of my team, we have put together the best team ever to contest elections.
But only because I believe as well. Not only will we win the elections, but that each member will be able to run his ministry from the day we form government, and life will begin to get better for the people throughout St Vincent and the Grenadines.