Premier Ewart Brown's Special Address to the Country
16 December 2007
Good evening Bermudians and Friends,
I take this opportunity to greet you on the eve of the holiday season, and wish you all a healthy, happy Christmas, and a joyous New Year.
We are on the eve of another momentous occasion here in Bermuda.
Our general election is hours away, and you will soon determine if you will keep moving Bermuda forward with a Bermuda Progressive Labour Party government.
A PLP government will continue to represent the interests of all Bermudians, and not just put the people first, but put the Bermudian people first.
We are a labour party born of the ordinary people of Bermuda, so when we assumed leadership of the government in 1998, we understood the plight of the average citizen.
It is a government's responsibility to feel the pulse of its people, to recognize disparities, right the wrongs, and balance all things for the greater good. That is why we are elected, and re-elected.
The PLP believes that we can hear and heed the call of everyday Bermudians, at the same time that we can maintain a healthy, warm and welcoming relationship with international business.
A PLP government will work to build even stronger ties with international business based on mutual trust, respect and a commitment to share a better Bermuda that works for everyone.
A PLP government will be a caring government, concerned about the quality of life of Bermudians. That is why a PLP government will deliver more geared-to-income rental housing to Bermudians, and will also help Bermudians who want to purchase homes by giving them interest-free down payment loans.
That is also why a PLP government will provide free day care – free day care to working Bermudian families in neighborhood and church settings.
We want to relieve the stress on the family that results from Bermudians holding multiple jobs, so we explored the payroll tax relief.
We concluded that blanket, across-the-board payroll tax relief, tied to income, for everyone who lives and works in Bermuda is a bad idea. It is Bermudian working families that are most in need of relief, and that is where a PLP government will give relief.
It is impractical, unaffordable, and unwise to give the same tax cut to a 22-year old making $42,000 a year while living with her wealthy parents as we give to a Bermudian mother of four making $42,000 living in a rental apartment.
It is impractical, unaffordable and unwise to give the same tax cut to a 30-year old single guest worker – most of whose income immediately leaves Bermuda to go to the place he calls home – as we give to that Bermudian mother of two, three or four.
We care about everyone in Bermuda, including our wealthy citizens and our guest workers, but it is that Bermudian mother of four who needs our focused attention right now.
We need to provide her with tangible assistance to make her burdens lighter – assistance like free day care, free bus and ferry rides, geared to income housing, and interest-free down payment loans.
A PLP government will address health care concerns of the elderly with FutureCare – an insurance program which will provide every Bermudian above the age of 65 with guaranteed health care. Our revered elderly citizens should not have to worry about health care, and under a PLP government, they will not worry about health care.
A PLP government will not spare the rod on crime, and will continue to pursue avenues to stem unlawful activity, the flow of drugs, and ravages of violence in our communities.
However, we believe that the proposed “Three Strikes” law and “preventive detention” are draconian, inappropriate and unworkable in Bermuda. The criminal offenders we are talking about with these laws are our children, our nieces, nephews, and cousins.
Yes, many of them are undesirables, but they are our undesirables.
We must punish them to the fullest extent of the law, but we must also try to help them.
That is why a PLP government is committed to programs like Alternatives to Incarceration, and the new Mirrors Program. We need only look next door to the United States, where there are ongoing repeals of “Three Strike” laws, because there have been repeated occurrences where wayward 18-year olds have been locked up for 10 and 15 years.
A PLP government is not going to give up on our young people that easily.
I could go on and on about what a PLP government will do in many other areas such as education reform, new urgent care centers on the East and West ends of the island, free Bermuda College tuition, full scholarships for study abroad, and new accessibility legislation for persons with disabilities.
I could go on and on about how successive PLP governments of the last 9 years have worked hard and have done a good job for Bermuda – GDP is at an all-time high, tourism has rebounded, and most people feel good about where this country is headed.
The Bermuda Progressive Labour Party has delivered for Bermudians, and a PLP government will continue to deliver for Bermudians.
What a PLP government will not do is take good things away from Bermudians, as the UBP has pledged to do.
The UBP has vowed to shut down the government TV station.
The UBP will shut down work on building urgent care centers on the East and West ends of the island, because they say that building urgent care centers before building a new hospital is “irresponsible in the extreme”.
Now, and I want you to hear this: the United Bermuda Party is pledging to take away our Bermudian birthright, by vowing to give status to permanent residents.
Think hard about this one – With the stroke of a pen, the UBP will give up to 8,000 people all the rights that Bermudians have.
At a time when we already have too few resources for Bermudians and a frightening scarcity of land still owned by Bermudians, the United Bermuda Party has pledged to give status to up to 8,000 foreigners and allow them to buy our land, dilute our vote, quiet our voices, and deprive our children and grandchildren of what is rightfully theirs.
Bermuda's future is on the table with this election. That is why we have witnessed a campaign that has now ventured into negative spaces that are hard to imagine for the Bermuda we know and love.
Many of you have been bombarded lately with distorted and untruthful information about independence. Despite what you see and hear, the PLP does not consider this General Election as a mandate to seek independence. We have absolutely no plans of seeking independence in the immediate or foreseeable future without a public mandate – without bringing the issue to the public in a direct, forthright way and being assured that a majority of Bermudians want independence.
Similarly, you have been bombarded by distorted and untruthful information about the Bermuda Housing Corporation. There is no new information substantiating anything.
Meg Munn, the Minister responsible for overseas territories, stated in the House of Commons in October of 2007, that BHC issues have been thoroughly investigated by the Bermuda Police and Scotland Yard, and the file is closed.
Finally, let me speak for a moment about the other side of Tuesday – I want to leave you with a message on unity. A unified Bermuda is more important than Ewart Brown, or Michael Dunkley, or the PLP, or the UBP.
Whatever happens on Tuesday evening, we must all wake up on Wednesday morning and be Bermudians – Bermudians dedicated to putting this election campaign behind us, and forging full-steam ahead, united in our effort to make our island paradise a better place for everyone.
We must recover quickly from the wounds of negative rhetoric and division and awaken to the promise of wholesome action in a patriotic, indivisible union – for the sake of our children, our elders, our selves, our posterity.
May God bless each and every one of you during the Christmas season. Thank you and good night.
