MEMBER of Parliament for St Catherine Central Olivia “Babsy” Grange has said that last Friday’s resignation letter from her councillor for Spanish Town, Kenisha Gordon, came as a surprise.

“We didn’t have a fall-out in any way. We enjoy very good relations, so I don’t really know what are the reasons which led her to that decision,” Grange told the Jamaica Observer on Monday regarding the resignation letter sent by Gordon to the chairman of the St Catherine Municipal Corporation and mayor of Spanish Town, Councillor Norman Scott, last Thursday.

Grange also disclosed that it will be a while before Gordon returns home from Canada, where she has been stranded since the restrictions on passenger flights into Jamaica as of March 24.

Scott told the press last week that he was shocked by the letter from Gordon, which he said he received prior to the municipal corporation’s monthly meeting last week Thursday.

“I was extremely surprised because, in my own view, she would have been one of the very bright sparks and someone I was looking forward to see excel in the political arena,” he stated.

Grange also said Gordon was her protégé and someone from whom she was expecting a lot. Gordon, who entered representational politics as Kenisha Allen, won the Spanish Town Division of the St Catherine Municipal Corporation first in 2011 at the age of 23.

She won again with another overwhelming performance in November 2016, defeating her competitor, the People’s National Party’s Dazliene Lawrence, by a massive 1,266 votes to his 86.

She married Javiere Gordon, a businessman whom she met while they were history students at The University of the West Indies in October 2018, hence the change of surname.

“I don’t want to say anything until I have spoken with her about this decision, but I am not sure when she will return home,” Grange told the Observer.

Gordon replaced the Jamaica Labour Party’s Everton Morrison, who represented the division from September 1988 to December 2010.

Morrison died at the Spanish Town Hospital on December 29, 2010, following a stroke. At that time, he was chairman of the corporation’s public health committee.

“I think I have what it takes to deal with Spanish Town, and I was born and raised in Spanish Town so I understand the atmosphere and the culture of the town,” Gordon had said then.