With general elections expected before year-end, the Observer’s Western Bureau will help you get to know your candidates in this end of the island.

Check this column every Saturday for information about those who are seeking your vote. Who are the candidates and why should you vote for them. This week, meet the People’s National Party’s Dr Patrick Harris.

Name: Dr Esmond Vernal Patrick Harris

Date of Birth: October 1954

Constituency: North Trelawny

Dr Harris was selected to run as the People’s National Party (PNP) Member of Parliament for North Trelawny in the upcoming general elections, even as incumbent MP, Wendell Stewart was given the boot earlier this year.

The 47 year-old medical practitioner was born at Maroon Town in St James. He currently resides on the outskirts of Falmouth in Trelawny in a community called Rock.

The divorced father of two has a private medical practice, which he has operated along Duke Street in Falmouth since 1987. After receiving his high school education at Cornwall College in Montego Bay, the doctor spent a year at the University of the West Indies. He also attended the Patrice Lumumba University in the former USSR where he received his medical degree.

He later returned to Jamaica and worked at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH), the Jubilee Hospital and then at the Falmouth Hospital in 1985. In 1987 he entered private practice and two years ago, he went to Calcutta in India where he studied Homeopathy/Alternative Medicine at the Bengal Allen Medical Institute.

Over the years he has been involved in a number of community groups including youth clubs and the environmental group in Falmouth.

He answers the question: “Why should we vote for you?”

“In our community now, there are so many things that we are badly lacking but we are a very rich community. Our community needs leadership in the worst way… Up front, I am bringing to the table decency, country values with respect for one another. These are words that are not fashionable anymore but it is what we are bringing to the table. And you have to understand that my background is in environment and we believe that we can have planned, sustained development. It is not a dream, but you need some leadership inside the process. The government has put in the macroeconomic policies. Now on the ground we need to do our work, locally. No one person can do it. But what I can do is try to provide the playing field to do it. I also think that I have the capacity to unify the people inside the constituency, meaning not only PNP. I am talking about PNP, JLP and no-P’s. We are not talking about who was PNP or who was JLP. That kind of argument — maybe it was relevant in times past — but right now I don’t think it is so relevant because we need to move forward.

“I cannot do anything in a community by myself. That is not the way I work. I will always ask somebody what to do and how to do it. And I will always try to solicit help in getting it done. I always involve other people as much as possible because that is when you know it is going to be a success. I am not in the typical sense a politician. I am community active… I am not one of the people whom are career politicians. I enjoy the work that I currently do and what I am doing now is extending that service. How long I stay in politics will depend on a lot of things, but I have no intention of becoming comfortable…”