FALMOUTH, Trelawny — Firing back at detractors who accuse her of non-performance, the first female Member of Parliament for Trelawny Northern, attorney-at-law Tova Hamilton, has declared that since the constituency was established in 1944 none of her male predecessors has outperformed her in four years.

“I have heard the chat on the streets and the whispers on the corners and the grumblings on social media. The people dem say, ‘Bwoy, she nah do no work’. They want you to believe that lie. Well, I am here today to mash down that falsehood. While the naysayers have been crafting stories I have been crafting real change. While they have been spreading rumours and propaganda I have been spreading development. And while they have been sitting around talking I have been working with you, I have been building with you and I have been delivering real results for you,” she said.

Hamilton was speaking during the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Falmouth Divisional Conference at the Falmouth All-Age School on Sunday.

She was not shy about taking credit for work she says she has done within the constituency. From the platform, she reeled off a slew of projects for which she said she has successfully made representation since 2020.

Among the highlights was the rehabilitation of the Martha Brae to Bounty Hall main road and the Wakefield to Deeside thoroughfare, which form a part of the phased improvement of the once pothole-riddled Falmouth to Deeside Road network.

“The rehabilitation of the Wakefield to Deeside Road for $145 million. Deeside never had road for longer than I was alive. We did the rehabilitation of the roads. The rehabilitation of the Martha Brae to Bounty Hall main road; most persons living in Bounty Hall can attest to the fact that now it takes eight minutes from Falmouth to Bounty Hall,” she said.

The MP added that in another week, there will be an announcement about the communities that will benefit from the $40-billion Shared Prosperity through Accelerated Improvement to Our Road Network (SPARK) programme.

In addition to numerous other examples of road work done, Hamilton also listed major water projects among her accomplishments.

“One of my proudest projects is the Greater Dornoch Water Rehabilitation programme that serves Samuel Prospect. That project cost more than $275 million. They ran 8.1 kilometres of pipeline from Baron Hill to Samuel Prospect and now that community has water. Also the Wakefield to Bunkers Hill pipeline replacement project, we did that as well and that project at a cost of $69 million,” she highlighted.

Hamilton also mentioned her support to sports, farming, housing, social welfare and education — which she said is dear to her — among other high points of her time in office.

“We have done two stages of mathematics completion in primary schools. And that is something that I want to resonate through the constituency. I am going to include all 19 in the next tranche,” she promised.

“And that is only the beginning. Imagine the possibilities in the second term. Imagine the growth, imagine the change, imagine the empowerment we can achieve together. We are just getting started,” she added.

Her dream, she told green-clad Labourites, is to see a constituency where all the roads are paved, the children educated, elderly cared for and “every man and woman and child has a chance to rise to their full potential”.

Hamilton, who represented the JLP in the 2020 General Election, defeated the People’s National Party’s Victor Wright to take the seat which was held by the PNP for decades.

During the conference, like other speakers before her, she took verbal jabs at the PNP’s standard bearer who is hoping to face off against her, Dr Wykeham McNeill.

“The so-called poster boy of achievement, the immigrant from the orange army who wants to come here and sell himself as the next big thing. He has another thing coming. You know better than to listen to the noise of the market. If he was as good as he claims, why is he running away from Westmoreland? Why haven’t we heard all of the grand achievements in his hometown of Negril? Whose brilliant idea was it to drag him here in a constituency he barely knows? They have no faith in him where he is coming from,” Hamilton said.

“Are you willing to support a parachuted candidate with roots that are not from here? Another man after the 17 terms that we have been through? A man who couldn’t secure his place where he is coming from? We have come too far, Labourites, to turn back now,” she urged.