Why My Political Journey Has Changed?
For as long as I’ve known myself, my family was split down the middle: one side aligned with NDP, the other with ULP.
One of my earliest political memories is standing at a street meeting as a child when Sir Vincent Beache handed me a Labour Party pin with the breadfruit leaf. In that moment I felt special. I felt seen, as if he had given me the world and I kept that pin close to my chest. He didn’t know what he had done to me. What he did was a good thing though!
From that day, despite my family’s mixed loyalties, I felt I would be a Labour supporter and I was… for a long time.
As a young voter, the ULP appealed to me. Their message felt fresh, their plans ambitious, and their call to action energizing. It was a time when I was just finding my voice, and they spoke to that part of me. I supported them faithfully through four elections.
Over time, my confidence slowly began to erode. By the fifth term, while working as a government employee surrounded by people who assumed my “blood ran red,” I found myself questioning what I was seeing and experiencing. Quietly, privately, I made a different choice at the ballot box — a choice I never imagined I would make.
If life teaches nothing else, it teaches this:
never say never.
Now we are at another election cycle, and my reflections have only deepened.
I believe that meaningful change requires renewal — not just in policy, but in leadership. Sometimes a party loses sight of the people they once served. Sometimes those at the top become insulated, comfortable, or driven by priorities that no longer align with the needs of the nation.
As a voter, as a citizen, as someone who has lived both the promises and the disappointments, I feel that disconnection strongly. I have seen the shift. I have felt it. I can no longer ignore the feeling that the alignment I once had has faded.
Many of us no longer respond to fear tactics, old narratives, or recycled warnings. We want a country where leadership listens, not just speaks.
Where accountability is consistent, not conditional. Where loyalty to a party never outweighs loyalty to the people.
What I want now is simple:
The freedom to vote with clarity, conscience, and independence.
I am not rooted in any party. I am rooted in my principles, my experiences, and my hopes for better governance, no matter who holds office!
The same power I used to show support in the past is the same power I hold today. If those I support tomorrow lose their way, I will use that power again. That is what it means to be a voter in a democracy. For this right which I have, some me call me ungrateful and a hypocrite and that’s ok. My granny use to say, “tell them word is wind.”
This election, I choose to exercise my freedom of thought, my freedom to question, and my freedom to decide.
Not out of fear. Not out of habit. Not out of tradition. My voice, my vote, like every other’s – matters! Together We WIN. I am voting for CHANGE!