GOING?WITH?COLIN!
That seems to be the new slogan being adopted by Barbados Labour Party supporters in St Peter as they expressed satisfaction with the St Peter Constituency branch’s decision last week to back hotel executive Colin Jordan, as the replacement for Owen Arthur.
The news was an early birthday gift for Black Bess shopkeeper Gweneth Hinkson-Hinds, who turns 70 tomorrow.
“I feel real great. I?know Colin, he went to school at Black Bess. He is great and I love him,” she gushed, adding that Jordan deserved to get the nod from the branch.
“He is a good replacement for Arthur and he got to win.” Hinkson-Hinds revealed that Jordan’s father had helped her build her shop back in 1984. “It is his father who got me on my feet all like now,” she said.
Charles Rochester, also called Jordan a very good choice.
“He knows he has huge footsteps to follow and in my opinion he will do a very good job,”?Rochester said, as he acknowledged that Black Bess wasa BLP?stronghold.
Another Black Bess resident who did not want to give his name called Jordan “a perfect matchfor Arthur”.
“He is going to do well. I feel he is going to get more votes than Mr Arthur.”
Wilverton Worrell, 47,of Diamond Corner, expressed the view that Jordan was a good replacement for Arthur.
“I feel he is a young aspiring gentleman and we got a lot of respect for him.
“He was in the tourism industry; he is out in the public domain so we know the gentleman is a very good replacement forMr Arthur,” he declared.
Also lending his support to the replacement nominee, was Campbell Scantlebury, 39, of Diamond Corner, who expressed bitterness over how Arthur departed the party but said he was welcoming Jordan with open arms. “Even though Harold “Pirate” Jordan is not related to Colin Jordan,he said he knew his family very well.
“We are related politically. I?feel he is a good choice and I think he will do well because he is on the right path. We here in Diamond Corner are Barbados Labour Party supporters and we think very highly of him.”
A shopkeeper who did not want to give her name said she knew Jordan from school days when they travelled the bus together.
“I use to see him on the school bus and he always carried himself well.”
Over at Six Men’s, resident Harold Goodridge who admitted that he was a Democratic Labour Party supporter, said if Jordan ran for the seat it could level the playing fieldand present a victoryfor the DLP.
“I don’t know anything about him, only whatI saw in the newspaperbut I feel now Mr Arthur resign he will have tough competition becauseMr Arthur was carrying him along.
“He will have a hard time now because there are a lot of people in St Peter who are very disappointed with the way Arthur left so you got people down here that are Bees who ain’t interested in the Barbados Labour Party no more.
“The DLP has a good chance of winning back the seat after 30 years.”
However, his neighbour, Olmstead Hinds, who once voted consistently during elections said he will be casting his vote for a non-political player.
“One time I use to be in politics and I use to give a personal vote… if I see that I look at you and I think you deserve the vote I would give you the vote. I wasn’t for B or D or C.
“I am looking forward to God’s Kingdom under a new righteous government that would not be inferior to this government that is ruling now,” he said.
•mariabradshaw@nationnews.com
