Battle for open WBN seat heats up over ‘crises’
(CNS): Rolston Anglin, who was the youngest candidate when he was first elected to office in 2000 when he was 28, was the oldest candidate and the only one to have served in political office at the Chamber of Commerce Candidate Forum on Friday night. In the fight for the open seat of West Bay North, he is facing three of this election cycle’s youngest candidates.
Anglin said the country was facing multiple crises. Having served in parliament three times, including as education minister in the 2009-2013 UDP government, he said he had the experience to tackle them, and experience matters.
Having previously run with political parties or alliances, this time, Anglin is running as an independent and has not said who he might align with if he won the seat on 30 April. The only WBN candidate running on a party ticket is Jordon Rivers, who is campaigning with the Cayman Islands National Party.
Asked about why they were running and their priorities, the candidates gave similar answers, but Anglin pressed home the state that Cayman is now in, saying we have crises in immigration, public education, housing and the cost of living. As a result, the country needed to elect people who could lead, he said.
The cost of living, immigration and education have dominated the campaign in every district during this election cycle, but Rivers was the only candidate at the forum who said that protecting the environment was a priority for him.
The PPM and the remaining UPM colleagues all plan to gut the National Conservation Act, so if those two groups merge to form a government, the future of Cayman’s natural resources is in real jeopardy.
The only party so far that has gone on record that it opposes any weakening of the legislation and has committed to protecting the islands’ natural resources is The Cayman Community Party, which has not fielded a candidate in WBN.
However, Rivers gave some indication that the CINP might also be keen to protect Cayman’s dwindling resources and stop putting the interests of a few wealthy developers and landowners ahead of the wider interests of the whole population.
“The environment is super crucial,” he said, noting there was only so much land in Cayman. “If we continue this unbridled development… without a proper and fit-for-purpose national development plan, we will continue to suffer.” He said that Barkers should never be used as a bargaining chip and that there were other natural locations that needed to be protected.
All four candidates agreed that West Bay needs a new high school. Shakeina Bush (IND), who is seeking to fill the seat held by her father, Bernie Bush, for the last eight years, said that a proposal made by Chris Saunders MP in parliament last year for a 2% property tax on foreign-owned real estate could pay for the desperately needed high school.
The four candidates were also in agreement over the need to continue subsidising the Cayman Turtle Centre, which, even at the best of economic times, has never been able to generate enough income to cover its operating costs.
However, they differed on what could be done to help the attraction stop losing money. Jermaine Ebanks-Hurlston said that West Bay needed a cruise pier to provide an income for the facility, which he did not believe should be privatised because of its strong connection to local culture.
West Bay North is one of four open seats this election cycle and a truly competitive race, but as the forum wrapped up, it was clear that Anglin was confident he was leading the race. However, he appeared to see Rivers as his greatest rival. But Rivers, too, was confident and put in a notable performance, as did the other two newcomers.
Rivers challenged the idea that experience was the most important thing in this election, pointing out the “failure after failure” that the experienced politicians have brought over the last 25 years, as he called for fresh dynamic leadership.
“We have seen the chaos that an entirely independent government has cost us over the last four years, and the horsetrading will continue if we elect that style of government come 1 May,” he said, as he urged the voters in WBN to voter for him and everyone in the Cayman Islands to vote for the CINP candidates.
Anglin countered by saying that “experience over experiments” was not a cliche but a reality, as he stressed his own experience.
Ebanks-Hurlston said he would restore trust and would not fade into the background after the election and would not be serving special interests. He also took aim at Anglin, who he said had achieved nothing during three previous terms in office.
Bush committed to leading with compassion because “our people are hurting”. She said Caymanians had to be put first, as she welcomed the younger generation of candidates who are running this cycle and promised to show up and work.
Through the campaign, some of the younger candidates have been criticised by the incumbents and accused of reading what they are told to by their backers or party leaders when they appear on these political stages.
But on Friday, most of the candidates avoided reading from prepared statements and were able to speak naturally rather than resorting to poorly rehearsed predictable talking points, as has been the case for many candidates — and not just the newcomers.
See the full forum below:
Check out the CNS Election Section interactive map to see who is running in each constituency.
See the list of candidates and their party affiliations here.
Category: Election News
Change writes: Every constituency has the same issue when their MP becomes a minister. It is not that they stop caring about their area, but Cabinet members have no choice but to tackle issues at national level, and that takes budget, meetings, reports, travel, conference calls, sitting with lawyers to streamline bills and laws — all […]
I hope all of Cayman does not vote for these candidates who were there before and left us with what we have now. Make a change, get a divorce, go through a breakup, and move on for all our sake. They have had their chance and did nothing. We have TRAFFIC, overrun with WP, and certainly the least chance of owning a part of Cayman we ever had. Don’t let loyalty guide you; do something for yourselves and your children and grandchildren. Do something for me.
I do not understand how people who vote for an independent are essentially throwing their vote away. if elected, they will trade their so-called campaigned beliefs for a party so they can get in power. Anglin is so proud of his manifesto, but it is a load of bullocks when he joins the CINP or whoever has the power. SO, by voting independent you are essentially guaranteeing sellouts and make-believe politics will be back for 4 more years. If you are an independent and you win, be a back bencher and try to lead from the back, don’t sell out because that’s not what I voted for
Thing is, once elected they have very little choice. The way the system is designed, it requires each representative to integrate themselves into the collective In order to achieve the objectives or projects they campaigned on. They cannot work alone — the system makes it nearly impossible. IMO, independents would make excellent Parliament Secretaries; it would give them significant work, an opportunity to learn the ropes, plus the networking opportunities to get things done for their constituencies. Furthermore, it appears most independents share priorities with the new groups anyway.
There are no parties winning this one, so like the last two, it will be a coalition that forms every government from here on out. There are lots of good reasons not to vote for Anglin, including several in the traffic category.
Better hush! Cause West Bay North had to make a decision instead of all of 3 candidates gets and steals manifesto
1. Jordan Rivers – what kind of experience of family business instead of working Tortuga when we saw him at the airport centre over 7 months ago when he don’t get any degree and get him to study into politics?
2. Shakeina Bush is a teacher from SJACPS that she’s th PTA and helping students and speaking the notes of her manifesting speech like her dad does from 2021 that we don’t get to see his office over 4 years and where’s the proof of WBN taken out of town without the Parliament know?
We had enough of their voices about the lies and more false that we are not going to vote for them for their foolishness ideas of stealing anybody else’s plans and ideas, we will knocked them down for their tears up!
Be ready WBN
Tried reading this twice. Not wasting a third time. For the love of baby Jesus, try to write coherent sentences.
Jordan Rivers is the only one honest enough to declare who he’s running with.
The others are fence sitters looking to jump on the party boat most beneficial to them.
Does he have the experience of the Parliament and other people that he visits in WBN? We still forget that he was supporting Bernie Bush from 2021 and now his daughter taken his seat, we have enough of Bush of LIES that Jordan should running in South with Andre since he was members of West Bay South Community instead of North.
We’re NOT voting to nobody this time, more lies, more fake smiles and more disgusting attitude!
Think about it!
All four are well-educated professionals and they all gave balanced, well-informed, visionary answers. The deciding factor, therefore, could be their character. Any of them has had serious run-ins with the law? A bit too fond of liquor, maybe? Any debts that could place them in the sights of special interests? I would vote for young people who are not tainted by old politricks. We are in the 21st Century and our government needs people who are prepared to learn and grow…
Please elaborate on Jordan’s education and profession. I see no evidence of those. He has no real accomplishments to note.
Exactly!
Plus Shakeina Bush too as well since her father is running in his seat that many of Bernie Bush supporters had left him for reason instead of no kids she had, she needs to go back and helping the students at Primary School again cause this is too much!
All 3 of them stealing the ideas and plans by Rollie’s manifesto!
Bush will be remaining the same process in the next 4 years that her dad is rejoicing and left the people in WBN suffering from his words of promises on Bush’s delusional!
Think about it West Bay North, we need a positive change to be better again
One is a big drinker.
He *IS* the liquor, Bobandy!
Also, any of them likely to join up with Mac and PPM ..?
That would be a NO from most who fear a return of UDP in sheep’s clothing.
It’s fairly obvious and known to many that Anglin will jump to join PPM to form a government.