This is the first in a series of interviews with people expected to enter representational politics for the first time in the next general election.

WITH a name that rings like that of one of the icons of the People’s National Party (PNP), there is little surprise that educator and businesswoman Ethnie Miller Simpson has moved towards representational politics on that party’s ticket.

Even less surprising is that she names former PNP President Portia Simpson Miller as one of her political idols.

“Portia Simpson Miller and Ethnie Miller Simpson, people confuse the names every day… I believe that what Comrade Portia Simpson Miller achieved is to present a picture for those of us who are women in politics [or] wanting to be in politics, that it is doable, it is possible.

“She was a very strong woman, and she still is a very strong woman, and I believe that is quite an exemplary sort of framework for many of us, and yet she wasn’t a walkover. But she had a softness, a delicateness even, about her that sort of… flew in the face of just how strong a woman she really was,” said Miller Simpson of the first woman to lead the PNP and Jamaica’s first female prime minister.

“She was able to command that kind of regard and respect; the love that she had for the people [was] unmistakable, absolutely unmistakable. And for us, as young politicians, it is understanding that you are not doing it for yourself, it is not about you, it is about the people who you serve,” said Miller Simpson, who had initially set her sights on Manchester North Eastern where her family roots are firmly planted.

She told the Jamaica Observer that shortly before the 2020 General Election she was called by an aunt, former general election candidate Dorothy Miller, who indicated that the person selected to contest the poll for the PNP was unavailable and she was needed to run.

“My first response was, ‘Nope, nope, not at all,’ because I didn’t think that I had paid enough attention to the foundation of politics for me… to do service to it. And then I made a couple of phone calls, got some information, made up my mind the next morning, and I went. But when the candidate turned up, I said, ‘No, let him run.’

“I didn’t feel that I wanted my journey in politics to start with taking someone else’s opportunity. That was not in the cards for me. I didn’t want to do that. So after the election, I volunteered. I started working with the constituency. I was elected as the constituency chairman, and I carried out that role for three to four years, thereabout. But internal politics happened… so I stepped back at the time,” added Miller Simpson.

She returned to the Corporate Area, intending to continue her work in education as a trained teacher and to restart her business, which had been successful in the past.

According to Miller Simpson, she then received a call to help organise the PNP in St Andrew North Western and after considering, made the decision to offer her service based on her background and experience, with no intention of offering herself as a candidate.

“But, I took a look at the seat and I said to myself, ‘There are a few things here that make this seat winnable.’

“When [then Member of Parliament] Dr Nigel Clarke stepped away from the seat and decided to pursue further career opportunities with the IMF [International Monetary Fund], I looked at the seat again and I said, ‘Hmm, you know something, yes I will help.’ But I was coming in to help, not necessarily coming in to run. Later on, [I] had some conversations, spoke with the party, they spoke back with me, and here I am,” said Miller Simpson, who is expected to be the PNP’s standard-bearer in the constituency the party has not won since 1976.

“When I made the decision to run in North East Manchester I knew it was a Labourite [Jamaica Labour Party (JLP)] seat, or what is considered to be a Labourite seat, [but] I was not deterred for the simple reason I know how good I am. I know what I bring to the table. I also am well aware of the changing dynamics in politics,” said Miller Simpson, even as she admitted that she has more work to do to connect with the residents of St Andrew North Western — where she has lived for some 15 years — than she would have had if she had stayed in Manchester North Eastern where she grew up and people knew her as a child.

“But I am not deterred, not deterred at all, because when I look at the seat, one, my opponent [the JLP’s Duane Smith]; you look at your opponent when you assess the viability of a seat and you also look at the structure of the seat. What I’m very good at is organising, so I recognised that North West St Andrew needs reorganising.

“I went and I listened, I did a lot of listening to persons on the ground and most of what they were telling me sort of connected with my assessment, and I said to myself, ‘This is doable,’ because if we’re able to restructure — some of which can be done before the election and has been done, some that we can leave until after an election to get done — so I’ve taken it on. I think I’m bold enough. I think I have the requisite skills, relational skills as well as technical skills.

“I bring a different eye because I have a development background. I was an evaluation consultant for the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) and I have done a lot of work with UN Women, with the [United States] State Department, and so on, and a lot of international exposure, that when I look at some issues I see them differently,” declared Miller Simpson.

She told the Sunday Observer that having examined the voting pattern in the constituency over the years, her team has developed plans to bring out people who are supporters of the PNP but who do not normally turn out on election day.

“They’ve not been, how should I say, ‘inspired’ to come out,” noted Miller Simpson as she admitted that one of the issues could be that the PNP has not fielded the same candidate in the constituency for several general elections.

“The profile that I have is very dynamic and it resonates quite well because we have a mixed constituency, in that you have the middle class, strong middle class, and we have persons who are professionals, we have persons who are business people. So, at present, we’re making in-roads,” declared Miller Simpson, who will have to overturn a more than 4,000-vote margin that Clarke beat the PNP’s Rohan Banks by in 2020.

But Miller Simpson and her supporters are taking comfort in the fact that only 1,857 voters turned out for Smith in the November 2024 by-election in which he defeated former PNP standard-bearer Carl Marshall, who ran as an independent.

“I believe that that is the journey that God has taken me on, and is one that I have stepped up to… Where North West St Andrew is concerned, it is more than winnable, because the people are seeing that they have a great representative, the people are also wanting a change, and that change is going to be happening now,” declared an upbeat Miller Simpson.