Editor: There is no doubt that the season of elections is with us, even if the Prime Minister is still to dissolve Parliament and indicate the date when Vincentians who love and value progress, will return the Unity Labour Party for a deserving second term.

I say this because the other party in contention, the New Democratic Party, has not told us in any serious and meaningful way, why we should return them to office. {{more}}

The problem is that over the last four years, the ULP has done so much that we are beginning to forget what we had over the last 17 years. This is not good.

How can we forget the massive mistakes made by the NDP including the Ottley Hall fiasco? How can we forget the problems with the education system, the housing sector, agriculture, housing and health, and the list goes on? To forget is to forgive the NDP for a period of poor governance, particularly over the last 12 years. But that is not possible. Not if we value this lovely country of ours! And not if we want to ensure that there is a future for our children and grandchildren.

Now along comes the ULP led by Comrade Ralph and what do we see? A dramatic period of growth over the last four years; a period in which a number of mistakes made by the NDP are being addressed in a meaningful way, or have been corrected.

No right thinking Vincentian will oppose the Education Revolution, but the NDP did. No right thinking Vincentian would have problems with the housing strategy being implemented by the government, except the NDP. What about the poverty reduction strategies, the HIV programmes, the adult education campaign, the agriculture diversification drive, the learning resource centres, the homes for elderly, all this and much more in four years?

This is hard to beat; even by a party like the NDP with a history of 17 years of governance. Why should we return them to power? There is really no reason at all, and the NDP is making matters worse by not telling us what is their strategy for the development of the country. All we hear are attacks on the leadership of the ULP, the maligning of Sister Pat, a series of lies, slanders, half-truths and inaccuracies.

No, we want to hear about concrete economic development plans for the country. The electorate is now smarter and wiser thanks to the ULP, and all this idle chatter, slander, lies and dirty politics will never work.

A word to the wise is enough.

Eddie Fife