WITH the talk of general election in the air, the Jamaica Observer’s Western Bureau will help you get to know your candidates in this part of the island.

Check this column ever 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 Jamaica Labour Party’s candidate for Western Westmoreland.

Name: Patrick Atkinson

Date of Birth: February 22, 1944

Born at George’s Plain, Westmoreland, Patrick Atkinson, the son of a school teacher, attended elementary school in that community before going on to the Manning’s High School in the parish.

He later completed high school at the Wolmer’s Boys School in Kingston.

After high school, Atkinson read for the Bar at Gray’s Inn, London, England where he became a barrister in 1967.

He returned to Jamaica in 1968 and practised law, first in the Chambers of Frank Phipps QC and then later in the Chambers of Ian Ramsey QC until he and his family migrated to Los Angeles, California where he was admitted to practice.

After a brief stint in private practice in Los Angeles, he joined Alternate Defence Counsel Inc, a Los Angeles County Defence type law firm that specialised in indigent criminal law defence.

While in Los Angeles, Atkinson distinguished himself as an outstanding lawyer and was named trial lawyer of the year in 1991 by the San Fernando Valley Criminal Bar Association.

In 1994, he was recruited as the Assistant Public Defender for Marin County in the San Francisco Bay Area of North California. He remained in that position until he returned to Jamaica two years ago.

The Jamaica Labour Party candidate has been a member of the party’s standing committee for nearly two years.

Atkinson is married and has three children.

He now responds to the question: why should I vote for you?

“I am confident that I will bring to Western Westmoreland the kind of representational skills that will make me available and accessible to my constituents constantly, and not just at election time, like the sitting member of parliament.

“Just like my profession as a lawyer, where I can only give competent representation if I am fully instructed by my clients, so it should be in representational politics,” Atkinson argued.

The JLP candidate is of the view that an MP cannot properly represent his constituents unless he is in constant consultation with them, and allows them to have input and full participation in the administration of their community.

According to Atkinson, the lack of employment in the Western Westmoreland constituency, particularly amongst youth, has reached crisis proportions.

“I believe that there should be a partnership between the constituency’s business people and the government to improve the business climate and to create new jobs. The infrastructure in the areas where the majority of Western Westmorelites live is woefully inadequate,” Atkinson argued.

He stressed that if he is elected, he would take urgent steps to repair the roads and to provide water and landline telephones in the area.

” I believe in empowering the young people in the constituency and I am committed to providing adequate public playing fields and community centres,” Atkinson said. “I am very serious that I am here to serve, and to make a lasting difference to this constituency.”