‘We have a political mess’ says Rolly
(CNS): Rolston Anglin, who is challenging Bernie Bush for the West Bay North seat after eight years on the political sidelines, distanced himself from any alliances, including those of his West Bay candidate colleagues, as he answered questions at the Chamber of Commerce Candidates Forum on Tuesday. Anglin described the current election campaign situation as a “political mess.”
He said the circumstances were not unlike those in 2000, when he was elected in for the first time, and suggested that just like 2000 and again in 2017, the next government would be the result of negotiation. He said that whoever gets elected in other districts will have been put there by the will of the people, and so he was keeping all of his options open.
In contrast to the unequivocal support for the current coalition given by his former UDP colleague and West Bay running mate, Capt. Eugene Ebanks, when he appeared on the same platform on Monday night, Anglin criticised the Unity government on several issues, such as education and housing, and distanced himself even from his own West Bay team, which includes Ebanks and McKeever Bush, saying that he would work with whoever was elected and had no group preference.
“I don’t believe that there is any grouping that I can identify and look at and say there is a preferred group,” said Anglin, who was education minister in the UDP 2009-2013 administration. “At the end of the day, it will be the will of the people that decide who occupies all of those seats. The fact of the matter is, to ensure that we have the best government, what we all should be doing is running campaigns based on facts, not fiction, campaigns based on real public policies and ensure when you get elected, you march into Parliament and Cabinet and roll up your sleeves to work.”
Anglin, who lost his West Bay seat in 2013, when he ran on the short-lived PNA ticket after splitting with Bush, said he was “work ready and ready to work”.
The incumbent, Bernie Bush, said he had made it clear which group he was working with as they had all been on his campaign platform. And while he was aware that they would also need to align with others the day after the election, the most important thing was that people shared his principles and he was not willing to work with those who did not share his views.
“I will not sit with certain people who do not have the same principles that I do,” he said. “I have certain principles that I stand for and under no circumstances will I bend my principles.”
Bush and Anglin both focused on policy, offering clear and sometime different positions on a number of important issues, enabling voters to identify which candidate would support what type of solutions to problems such as over-development, affordable housing and the cost of living.
There were no fireworks or angry exchanges between the men, although Anglin managed a dig when he pointed out that loving Cayman or caring about the people wasn’t enough to qualify a candidate because there wasn’t one that didn’t believe that, and government needed people capable of solving complex problems.
Anglin said he was worried about the lack of talent and vision over the last eight years in government and he had returned to politics to put Caymanians on a pathway to success. He also spoke about a direct equity packages policy to address the barriers of home ownership for locals among other initiatives, and reserving affordable homes for the rental markets.
Bush pressed his concerns and policy positions to address the worsening poverty in Cayman, the cost of living and healthcare costs. He also noted the pressing need to protect the country’s dwindling natural resources from development. In WBN, he said, the threat to Barkers was of significant concern for his constituents, many of whom had raised their fears about its future with him while he has been on the campaign trail.
Although 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 and his challenger for West Bay West, Mario Ebanks
Mario Ebanks: Candidate for West Bay West. Chief Human Resources Officer at the Cayman Islands Airports Authority. Biography: • Eighth generation Caymanian, with great-grandparents from... More, were scheduled to appear at the Chamber forum on Wednesday evening, at the close of Tuesday’s broadcast. Chamber President Mike Gibbs announced that only Ebanks would be there.
See the Chamber forum for WBN below:
Category: Election News
