Walker walks the talk in Diego Martin West

Dr Keith Rowley, 70, has been the MP for Diego Martin West for 29 years, and is seeking to the elected representative for another term in the August 10 general election.

UNC challenger Marsha Walker believes she can break his decades-long holding on the constituency. Walker, 37, came to the public's attention after Dr Rowley's chastisement on nomination day and on Facebook accusing her of slandering his name. She is not discouraged.

Rowley, she said, has left the residents of Diego Martin disenchanted and betrayed saying he has under-represented them, especially in his term as Prime Minister.

“You’re now the Prime Minister, so you’re not a backbencher by any means. In fact you have the most powerful seat. I would have thought that we would have really seen a lot happen in Diego Martin West.”

The parenting advocate, author, mother and housewife grew up in Big Yard, Carenage, and now lives in Petit Valley.

Walker, formally Riley, believed society was at a stage where politicians must focus on family life and said leaders could not call boys "monsters and pests." The country needed policymakers with hearts and compassion, who would not address people as statistics or problems to be solved, but as human beings – and address the hurt.

“I think people need and are ready for leadership that is open. People find it refreshing to see someone who is human and not a figurehead. The country wants that kind of genuine honesty, that personal touch, and I think that’s what we need to take us forward.”

If elected, one of the first things she would address was the lack of water at schools, saying she was disappointed at the number of days children had to stay home as a result. So, if elected, in her first 90 days in office, she intended to engage whoever was necessary to set up the infrastructure needed to ensure children always have water in schools.

She also wanted to create initiatives to help parents who want to work from home. She hoped to organise co-operatives, show people how to use their talents, and teach them budgeting, and other skills to encourage micro and small businesses.

In addition, she said there were big community centres, but because of "territory" issues, some people were not able to go there without being threatened. Until those issues are solved, she said, there was a need to make more parks and other community areas available.

She also hoped to bridge the gap between the wealthy and “not so wealthy” by bringing them together through mentorship programmes focussing on different fields including businesses, and PTAs. She hoped as they interacted, they would understand each other's fears and strengths, and be able to work together to build a better constituency.

Walker's vision arose from her personal experiences.

“About eight years ago, I was a single mom for a while, and that showed up inefficiencies in the system and where there is room for improvement. I am not one to sit back and complain. I tend to always look for solutions, so very early on I knew I needed to leave my corporate job and pursue some sort of income around my daughter. That was the start of my new journey.”

Walker also decided to home-school her only daughter at the time, Jessie-Leigh, ten, and posted her journey on Facebook. Others were inspired and started reaching out to her or asking for advice so that she spent a lot of her days answering people’s questions.

She said that experience and others inspired her to do more.

Her parents divorced when she was in Form Two at St Joseph’s Convent, Port of Spain. She said her father was abusive to her mother, but she became very close to him before he died. She realised while there was no excuse for what he did, “hurt people hurt people” and abuse was a cycle – so when she got older she developed a passion for helping men.

“The greatest tragedy isn’t what I go through. The tragedy is if no one learns and benefits from what I go through. That perspective always helps.

“Everything I’ve experienced pointed me toward my different passions. I can just relate to a lot of problems people have and I got frustrated and asked, ‘So how can I help?’ because something had to be done.”

At one time she volunteered at a school in Port of Spain, teaching girls financial literacy. She said no one had ever sat them down and showed them how to manage their finances or lives, which was not surprising as most people did what they knew and managed as best they could.

In 2015, she published a children’s book, If I Can, You Can Too, the story of Olympic gold medallist Keshorn Walcott. She did book readings at schools and became aware of some the problems and issues the children were going through. She could not turn her back on them and so organised a children’s camp called Piece of Me.

There, she realised the issue was the parents.

“Parents are afraid when I send their children home with a big dream. They think, ‘What am I supposed to do with your dream? I don’t have the resources, I don’t have the time, I don’t have the know-how to help you with your dream.’ To them, I was just making life difficult.”

But she said it did not have to be that way. She said, unlike what the country’s leaders are saying, TT had money, but it was not being used to transform people’s lives. The situation left her frustrated and she got tired of only being able to help one person at a time. She wanted to help on a larger scale.

Yet she got into politics accidentally.

During the last general election campaign she started to pay attention to the political scene. Because of the circles with which she interacted, she was able to observe people from each party as well as independents. Also, she said, she had never bought in to PNM policies.

In 2017, former Caroni Central MP Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie approached her to speak about parenting at a conference. She hoped and believed that Tewarie, who was open to new ideas and policies, was an example of the type of people in the UNC. In addition, he was also very welcoming to Jessie-Leigh, who went everywhere with her.

“He knelt down to speak to Jessie at her level, instead of towering over her. That action immediately won me over.”

A year later, after she married Richard Walker in 2018, Tewarie invited her to a UNC meeting. She was introduced to Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar and other UNC members. They were all welcoming, respectful, and considerate to her daughter and husband.

“You see those bits of values? I think a lot of the societal ills we are seeing is because we’re missing those values. We’ve lost that kind of value system. And I saw those values with every single person at that meeting.”

After that, she spoke to her husband and they both agreed she should “step up.” She joined the party and later agreed to be screened as a candidate and was selected for Diego Martin West.