By: Staff Writer
December 17, 2021
With the Grenada general elections to be held in 2023, over a year plus away, Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell is not buying into the hype around the election of the new political leader of the other main party in Grenada, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Dickon Mitchell, the new 44 year old leader of the NDC, has created quite a stir when he was elected to be the leader of that party. A party that has suffered back to back clean sweep losses to Dr Mitchell’s New National Party (NNP) in the 2013 and 2018 general elections.
Dr Mitchell, speaking exclusively to Caribbean Magazine Plus, said when asked to respond on Mr Mitchell’s appointment: “I don’t think I should be commenting on it. I think other members of my team may, but I don’t think it’s a wise thing.
“The Prime Minister should not be doing that- that is given him promotion, I don’t wish to give him promotion. I wouldn’t comment on that. I mean, we could get people to do that. But as Prime Minister, I should not be doing that.”
Undeterred by the hoopla surrounding the young Mitchell, Prime Minister Mitchell is focused on keeping Grenada steady during the COVID-19 pandemic while preparing his party to begin campaigning in earnest for the 2023 general election. Dr Mitchell also said: “In politics you don’t take anything for granted. You do what you have to do, as I tell my members the only persons to beat the NNP is the NNP.
“If you do your work, you won’t have a problem. But if you dont do your work, dog gone beat you. I always tell them to take nothing for granted.”
Taking nothing for granted is Dr Mitchell’s modus operandi. A man who has seen the highs and lows of political life in Grenada, from government to opposition politics over the last 30 plus years having first won office in 1984 for the St George Northwest constituency, working his way to becoming leader of the NNP and becoming Prime Minister in 1995 and serving in that post until 2008 where he was ousted by a Tillman Thomas lead NDC.
Never giving up, Dr Mitchell won the subsequent Grenada election in 2013 by a landslide and won a consecutive landslide in 2018, making him one of the longest serving parliamentarians in the Caribbean.
Speaking further about his keys to political longevity is his guile and wisdom. “I never win anything until all the votes are counted. That’s one thing, in politics a one day is a long time in politics. You could be popular today and down tomorrow easily. So that’s something I learned in politics, take nothing, not the voters, or anything for granted.”
Grenada is going through a period of unparalleled economic boom Dr Mitchell also said, having launched the second Intercontinental hotel on Thursday, a project promising to generate 600 plus direct jobs. “That’s only one project, there are other projects that will create thousands of direct jobs and construction jobs for the people of Grenada.
“We have several more, we have one in St Patrick as well as another. These are billion dollar projects and when they come through as planned they will bring enormous investment.”
There is also a project being developed by Range Developments using the Citizenship by Investment programme in Grenada.
He added: “We expect next year will be a very strong year for economic activity because the construction sector is booming in Grenada at this point. People are having difficulty getting materials because of the level of construction taking place in the country.”