Progressives kick off election campaign with Meet & Greet at Constitution Hall

By Christopher Tobutt

The official beginning of the People’s Progressive Movement (PPM)’s election campaign kicked off on Monday 13 October at Constitution Hall. It was billed as a Meet & Greet session, where PPM members including Former Premier Sir Alden McLaughlin, and the new PPM leader, Joey Hew, along with Deputy Leader Barbara Conolly got to mix and mingle with the folk who had braved the sudden downpour of rain to come and find out what the PPM were bringing to the table.

Sir Alden began by fully endorsing the PPM’s fourth leader: “He’s not as young as he looks, but he has a wealth of experience. He was President of the Chamber of Commerce and President of the Rotary Club. I think he’s more than qualified to take up the leadership, and he has the backing of the rest of us. He has the full support of all of us who are elected. No one is challenging him for the leadership, and no one is challenging Barbara,” he said.

“I think the country, Even the greatest supporters of the current government and the biggest naysayers of the Progressives must realise by now that this business of electing a bunch of Independents from each constituency who have no common purpose, no common set of policies and programmes with no common agenda is a recipe for bad government.

“They are not making much progress because they cannot agree on many things. People ask me, ‘How is it that Parliament meets as it just did, and they don’t even have one Bill?’ It’s because they can’t agree on any one thing. That’s why no work is coming through the Caucus, the Cabinet and the House.

Joey Hew said:

“We still live in the best country in the world. How can we enjoy our country a bit more? How do we address some of your concerns about things that are not letting you sleep at night and not allowing you to enjoy this beautiful country that we have? Health insurance?

“Why are we back to where Caymanian school-age children aren’t receiving free care at the hospital? Even if we have to do a means-test.  We only have to do it twice, at the admission to primary school, and then again when they go to High School,

“Let me tell you a story about a young lady working in a supermarket for eight dollars an hour. She’s trying her best, she has two children, she’s on NAU. Then she has to get an advance for her uniform and has to pay that back. Then she has to get a babysitter…then pension and insurance has to be taken out. We sat down and worked it out for her – she was losing fifty dollars a week. It made no sense for her to go to work.

“Making the lives of our citizens better, helping them to enjoy this beautiful country. How difficult is that? No, (they) want to go and build big grand things that have nothing to do with the lives of our people. That is not me. I want to see my people happy. That is what I’m about – seeing other people thrive.

“So this is what we’re talking about – bringing back the focus onto our people -  being real, touching hands, being part of the community – listening to you. This is what we are going to talk about when we are talking about going out there to fight for our young people.

“Because unless you have wealthy parents that can put up the deposit for you to buy a home, you will never buy a home. So we have to put programmes in place. We had a multi-agency task force set up before Covid hit.  There are programmes such as shared ownership where the government buys a home, and you buy a percentage from the government – say 30 per cent. Then each year you can buy a little more until you get to 50%. And then you can cash it in and go and buy somewhere else – then you can sell it back into the programme, and then another Caymanian can come and buy a percentage.”

Barbara Conolly, the first woman to serve as Deputy Leader of the Opposition, underscored the significance of this moment for Cayman. “It’s a Proud moment for the women of the Cayman Islands,” she said.

“Tonight I celebrate my friend, and my new leader of the Opposition, Mr. Joey Hew. Joey, you have my full support, and I have no doubt that you will lead this party with spirit, dedication and vision.”