The daughter of one of Jamaica’s most-talked-about individuals has singled out her father for being the guiding light in her quest to achieve political success.

Connoly Black, offspring of Central Jamaica-based businessman and long-time People’s National Party activist Kenneth Black labelled her father, who is also known by the nicknames ‘Skeng Don’, and ‘Trainer’ as her “pillar of strength.”

“I have got a lot of obvious questions about my father, and I think it is important for people to understand that my father has been very supportive of me inside and outside of politics,” said Connoly, who joined the People’s National Party Youth Organisation four years ago and is now serving as its Acting President.

“He has never pushed me in any one direction because of what I grew up knowing with regards to the People’s National Party and what it has done for Jamaica. I always felt a stronger sense of duty to give back, and obviously it would be through the People’s National Party, and my father has always been a pillar of strength and support for me, and that encourages me more,” she said.

“He, more than my mother, can have a political conversation with me. Because he has always been an activist, he is able to tell me what it was like in the 80s or the 90s, and because of that I have a great appreciation of where politics is coming from, and I have developed my own vision of where I think it should go. That’s why I joined the PNPYO — because I felt that I had a voice that I could lend to the movement to better represent our young people. I joined four years ago,” Connoly Black said of her father, one of the largest building contractors in Jamaica.

Although she is now in the bosom of the Opposition party, she readily suggested that she was not pushed by her parents to support the umbrella organisation that was founded in 1938.

“No pushing to become a member of the PNP, none at all,” she responded in zip- like style to the suggestion.

As to why she went along with the PNP, the answer did not take long in coming.

“From as young as I can remember, I grew up in a household that was orange,” she said, referring to the party’s preferred colour. “My mother is from South St James and my father is from Clarendon, although he is based in central Manchester.

“I always knew which was the better of the two parties, whose vision they identified with, and I was socialised to identify with that vision,” said the University of the West Indies law student who was born at Barrett Town in South St James and enrolled at El Instituto de Mandevilla Preparatory School in Mandeville and Wolmer’s Girls, School in Kingston.

As for a possible future in elective politics, Connoly Black has not worked that out yet.

“I am not sure. I do know that I will remain politically active, but I don’t know if becoming Member of Parliament is on the cards. Possibly … but you never know.

Describing herself as a “socialist”, she holds firm to the view that that political system is best suited for a country like Jamaica.

“The vision that I have is one that believes that every one in Jamaica ought to receive the same amount of benefits. I don’t believe in the trickle down effect … I don’t believe that you can give to the top percentile and hope that it will reach to the bottom. What if it never reaches to the bottom? What happens to those persons at the bottom? I believe that the most vulnerable persons in the society ought to be protected,” Black said.