NewsA new page in the Barbados Labour Party’s history was written on Saturday 19th January when Mia Amor Mottley was unanimously elected as Political Leader and Leader of the Opposition. It is the first time in the Party’s illustrious seventy-year history that a woman will lead the Party.
This third generation politician first came to public life as the Party’s candidate for St. Michael North East in 1991 where she fell just shy of securing the seat. Three years in the Senate characterized by vigorous debating skills brought her to national attention and marked her as one of the Party’s future leaders.
With the collapse of the Erskine Sandiford Administration in 1994. Mia held the St. Michael North East seat for the Barbados Labour Party and has turned what was a marginal seat for the BLP into one of its strongholds. So much so that she polled the highest percentage of the votes cast for any Labour Party candidate in the 2008 election – 67%.
With a fine record of achievement first as Minister of Education, Youth Affairs and Culture (1994-2001;) Attorney-General & Minister of Home Affairs (2001 – 2006;) Leader of Government Business in the Lower House (2001 -2008;) Deputy Prime Minister (2003 – 2008) and Minister Of Economic Affairs & Development (2006-2008) Mia’s experience both in and out of Government is matched only by that our outgoing Political Leader Owen Arthur. Undoubtedly though, the highlight of Mia’s tenure as a member of the Owen Arthur Administration was her leadership during the maritime arbitration hearing between Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados before the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The award by the UNCLOS tribunal has secured Barbados’ rights to all maritime resources in the seabed within the delimitation zone and will bring closure to a long outstanding fishing agreement between the two countries. It is the prospect of oil and gas reserves once properly managed that could have a far-reaching impact on the quality and depth of our future development.
As the Barbados Labour Party looks forward to the March 31 celebration of our founding seventy years ago we do so confident in the ability of our new Political Leader to revitalize, rebuild and reorganize the Party so that it once again becomes the first choice of Barbadians.
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Calendar of EventsEveryone knows that when the Dems cannot win on the issues or fulfill their outrageous promises, they always resort to smear and gossip. That will not reduce the high cost of living or put food on anyone’s table. It will not put money in the pockets of those who are now under severe economic pressure? Gossip will not make the burden lighter when people who visit the supermarket – reach the cashier?
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