Candidates duck Q&A forums
(CNS): Two candidates, both in tight head-to-head constituency races, ducked out of the opportunity to answer questions from voters alongside their opponents on Tuesday. Bernie Bush, who is a two-way race with Rolston Anglin in West Bay North, left the Cayman Crosstalk studio on principle, he said, as he registered a protest against the new owners of the show for firing the former host, Woody DaCosta.
Meanwhile, Osbourne Bodden
Osbourne Bodden: Candidate for Bodden Town East. Biography: Bodden served two terms in government under the People’s Progressive Movement (PPM), first as a backbencher (2005-2009)... More declined an invitation from the Chamber of Commerce to take part in its Candidates Forum in Bodden Town East, where he is running against the incumbent, Dwayne Seymour
Dwayne Seymour (IND): Bodden Town East MLA, Minister of Health, Environment, Culture and Housing. Biography: Seymour was first elected to the Legislative Assembly in 2009... More, because, he said, he had a previously arranged public meeting.
Bush did take the time to go to the studio and explain why he did not want to stay. Although the statement was not very specific, the WBN incumbent accused Compass Media, which acquired the call-in morning radio show when it bought out Hurley’s Media, of disrespecting the former host over the way he had been sacked, and said he did not want to be seen promoting a company that would treat Caymanians that way.
Bush said that Anglin had been absent from the political scene for eight years and so he would let him have the floor for the rest of the show. He said he would answer any of the questions raised at his own meeting this weekend.
However, that left the floor open for Anglin to promote his platform without anyone challenging or countering his claims. The former education minister is campaigning on a platform with McKeeva Bush
McKeeva Bush (CDP), West Bay West MLA Speaker of the LA, Leader of the Cayman Democratic Party. Biography: Bush is the longest serving member and... More in West Bay and despite his DUI convictions, is already believed to be the favourite.
Anglin apologised to the people he had let down over his drunk driving charges and said those days were behind him. He said the convictions were not reflective of who he is and that 18 months ago he had got help to make him a better person.
Meanwhile, Bodden told CNS that he was unable to make the Chamber debate because he had a rescheduled public meeting, which, at this point in his campaign, he felt was more important than appearing on a national stage.
Bodden said that because of the snap election, time was tight in which to achieve his goals in the constituency. “I had a meeting planned that had been postponed, and with the short time left before elections to get in all my meetings and visitations, I chose to do that over the forum, that would not benefit me greatly, in a quest to win the BTE seat,” he added.
His failure to appear, however, gave Seymour an opportunity to answer the 20 questions posed by the Chamber unchallenged. The debate could have been far more interesting than most, given that it would have been between a former and the current health minister.
Bodden was minister of health during the first 19 months of the 2013-2017 PPM administration. However, at the end of 2015 the premier, Alden McLaughlin
Alden McLaughlin (PPM): Red Bay MP, Premier, Minister of International Trade, Investment, Aviation and Maritime Affairs (MITIAMA). Biography: McLaughlin has been a member of the... More, reshuffled the portfolios in the wake of the ‘driftwood scandal‘, in which Bodden verbally abused his chief officer, for which he has since apologised.
But instead of a debate about health issues, Seymour was given a free pass to promote himself and paint his own picture of his four years in office. He admitted that the health insurance system needed fixing and that he has not been able to find a solution to provide affordable care for the elderly, a free plan for children or fix the entire problem.
He stated that he was not an environmentalist, despite being the current minister for this area, though he did raise his concern about the disappearance of land crabs. And although for the last four year he has been responsible for the landfill, which continues to be a major issue for the voting public, the minister was not asked about his failure to address that ongoing problem.
Seymour was elected in 2017 on a campaign promise of addressing the perennial problems associated with the work permits and had told his voters that if they elected him, there would be “a moratorium on day one on work permits”.
However, he criticised the government’s new Workforce Opportunities and Residency Cayman (WORC) agency. “I don’t think the system is working the way it was intended… It’s just not working for our people,” he said, and suggested taking all the information from the complaints about the agency to work out what is wrong, and talked about “training hundreds” of people.
The minister also demonstrated that he has still not evolved in his position on the rights of the LGBT community when he said that his opposition to the Civil Partnership Law was related to protecting children and not having certain types of bathrooms. He claimed he did not hate people and now it was law it had to be respected, but raised his concerns about procreation.
Watch the CrossTalk programme on Facebook and the Chamber Forum below:
Category: Election News
