New Democratic Party (NDP) vice president St Clair ‘Major’ Leacock has publicly declared his expectation of sitting in the Prime Minister’s chair, even if in an acting capacity, should the party be voted into office in the next general elections due in November.
Leacock, the Member of Parliament for Central Kingstown, made his expectation known at a political meeting at Redemption Sharpes in his constituency last Saturday night.
“I expect in an NDP government that I will be somebody. I really expect that. Because he can’t ask – that all the time he’s going away on other business he asking me to act and act and act. And now the real thing come he going say ‘boy, shift aside.’
“So I expect that when he going and he ain’t here, I will act too. Yes, I (am) bold. Because I tell you, in one year, I will do in Central Kingstown what he was not able to do in 24 years. And many of my colleagues will do the same thing. They will do it because they will be empowered,” said Leacock, one of two vice presidents of the NDP.
Leacock was appointed senator in 2005. He was elected Central Kingstown MP in 2010 receiving 2,600 votes to his Unity Labour Party opponent’s 2,084.
In 2015, he received 2,441 votes, compared to the ULP candidate’s 2,063, and in 2020 election he received 2,642 votes compared to the ULP candidate’s 1,965.
Leacock responded to Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves’ claim that he doesn’t know what it is to run a government.
Leacock said he was a manager at the St Vincent Electricity Services Company Ltd, a former president of the SVF Football Federation, a former commandant of the SVG Auxilliary Police Force, former commandant of the St Vincent Cadet Force, former chairman of the board of management of the state-owned Radio 705 and also served on a number of other boards, including at the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Cobble Stone Inn hotel.
“I had twenty-one uninterrupted years of study. And if I can’t do it, I don’t know who can,” Leacock said.
Leacock, the NDP’s spokesperson on national security matters, has been reminding his leader Dr Godwin Friday of the prospective Minister of National Security appointment. At a recent political rally at Sion Hill, he called on Dr Friday to have him sworn-in at the earliest, hoping for his party’s victory at the polls in the upcoming general elections.
Leacock has vowed to pursue vigorously alleged corruption, saying that from the very first hour after an election victory he wants to be on the job.
“Dr. Friday, in the normal course of things, when a government win election, after you swear-in the Prime Minister, the next person you’re going to swear-in is the Attorney General. I beg you to please swear me in as Minister of National Security. I want to be on the job from the first hour – from the first hour that we win. Because, when they come and they play the ass, they gone. Swear me in please,” Leacock told Friday.
Leacock said the New Democratic Party takes seriously and solemnly the pledge that it gave to the people that “life gets better the day” they vote the New Democratic Party in to office.
At a sitting of parliament in December 2016, following the election of Dr Friday as president of the NDP, replacing Arnhim Eustace, Gonsalves congratulate Leacock for offering himself to become leader.
Gonsalves’ congratulation came after Leacock claimed the process, in November that year, was mismanaged by his party.
“I was really moved, Mr. Speaker, because it was an unusual congratulation. It is the most unusual that I have heard in my time here as a parliamentarian,” Gonsalves said.
“From his base of an impressive record of service, I understand his pain of having to not participate in the process, the election process, according to him, which was mismanaged,” Gonsalves said.
Gonsalves said he was “touched” by Leacock’s words that he was “enduring great suffering and humiliation and is pained and his great suffering and humiliation and pain are occasioned by those in an organization to which he had given 35 years service,” Gonsalves said, adding, “I must say I am very touched by this.”
The prime Minister further stated: “But, there is a larger question, Mr. Speaker, the large question is this: When persons serve for a long period of time, either in their going, or when they are gone, in their service or when they have completed their service, it is a fundamental matter that such a person be treated with respect.
“And the history of politics, not only in the Caribbean or elsewhere, has taught all of us that when someone has served faithfully and well for a long period of time, that in the continuing service and in the going, and if the person chooses to go, that that person must be treated with great respect. If not, there is always the likelihood that that person has at least, to put it bluntly, one political kick remaining, at least one for those who have accorded him great disrespect.
“I think I would not, in the context of what was said, be wrong, in making that observation from the whole sweep of history, comparatively and certainly in the region.”
Gonsalves said he “would never forget” that day.
“It is as public an expression of anguish, pain and humiliation that I have ever heard in this Parliament as directed to those whom he has served faithfully and well for 35 years. I think this is a special day for several reasons,” Gonsalves said.
If Leacock and/or the NDP miss the train come next general elections, his hope of ever occupying the Prime Minister’s chair will be lost. He has repeatedly stated that this election will be his last.
