Dear Editor,

Last Friday all of the headlines in the national newspapers and television declared that deputy leader of the People’s National Party (PNP) Damion Crawford had been defeated by newcomer Ann-Marie Vaz, the wife of Member of Parliament Daryl Vaz.

She is a political newcomer, but she had the machinery of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the full support of her campaign manager and husband.

From day one since she was appointed the caretaker of the Portland Eastern constituency, she hit the ground running. She was able to tell her story of being a humble country girl who spoke the language of the people. She showed Portlanders that she is one of them. She showed them she is a different political leader, with action and not a ‘bag of mouth’ and started fixing bridges, roads, supplying running water to areas that had never had this precious commodity before.

This constituency has never seen such uplifting activities before and they were sold that “Action Ann” is the one who can put Portland Eastern back on the map of relevance again on the national stage. The people saw her work ethic and wanted to be a part of her story, and many PNP supporters who had never voted for the JLP before decided to give her a try because they knew that you can’t keep doing the same thing by voting for the PNP and getting the same results, which is stagnation.

PNP President Peter Phillips and Julian Robinson, the general secretary, who are the two main driving forces behind the party, have been floundering as leaders and have lost several decisive elections against the JLP. The PNP is in survival mode and it’s alleged that it needed a saviour to lift the party again. Hence, they called on their most popular member of the party, Damion Crawford, to rescue the party.

The PNP thought that Damion Crawford would have won the by-election, especially with Portland Eastern being the ninth-safest seat in the nation for the PNP — the PNP held it over 30 years. That the JLP was able to wrestle this seat away from them speaks volumes. It shows that there has been a paradigm shift in political ideology not only in Portland Eastern, but also the rest of the county.

One must say that Crawford has taken one for the team, and he came out in defeat.

If you can recall, it was the same Crawford who made pronouncements that his ideal challenge is to take on Prime Minister Andrew Holness to wrestle his seat from him. Now this man has been trashed by a newcomer. So this goes to show that he had delusions of grandeur.

The people of Portland Eastern have spoken.

One has to wonder if Crawford will be holding his farewell concert, as a social media meme suggests, dubbed The Long Walk From East Portland #LWFEP. And, if so, I wonder who would buy any of these tickets.

Patrick Callum

patrickcallum@yahoo.com