Grant ready for battle

THE Democratic Labour Party (DLP) candidate for St. Michael South East, Rodney Grant, is ready to lead the war that will bring about social and economic change in that constituency.

The prominent community practitioner, who has spent over 40 years pushing for social transformation in Barbados, said while there are people in the constituency where he grew up struggling to make ends meet, he was ready to sit in Parliament and fight on their behalf so that their lives can be improved.

“We have to work together to create the type of change that we want. It is not going to be easy. It is going to be a war and we are ready for war. But it is not a war of guns and knives; this is a war for social change.

“This is a war for social change, a war for economic change, a war for enfranchisement of ordinary people. We can’t continue to build ‘two Barbados’,” Grant said.

Speaking at an induction ceremony at the Parkinson Memorial School on Sunday, Grant said that the people in St. Michael South East were in need of a Parliamentary Representative who would care about them and have their best interest.

The head of the Pinelands Creative Workshop declared that he would be the perfect Member of Parliament for that area, not only because he once lived and understand the constituents’ plight, but also because he has never left their side, always just “one call a way”.

“Representation is not a part-time story that you check in, in 2013 and check out for the next four years until 2018. It is not a game, because people’s lives happen every day and people need representation every day.

“You know why people going into Parliament? There are things you can do that ordinary people can’t get do, and that is why it is called ‘representation’. So we have a job to do, people of St. Michael South East and we have a heavy undertaking,” Grant said.

“But we [aren’t] long from the end of the journey, because we have been running. We cheat in the game; we start running before the whistle blow. So we did running this race 40 years ago.

“So although the whistle now blowing in 2018, we are ahead of the race. So the opponent got 40 years to catch up… She can’t catch me, I like Bolt,” a confident Grant declared, admitting that there is a lot of work to be done.

The candidate told the scores of party supporters that he was beginning to dream and imagine the possibilities of the constituency being developed.

However, he noted that at the same time, constituents must share his vision to fix the physical structure of the constituency.

“We are going to have a good time together. I am ready and my team is ready. Let me tell [you all] something, if the elections call tomorrow, we [aren’t] only ready, we winning,” he said. (AH)