McClashie: Restoring La Brea’s confidence in PNM a challenge

Stephen McClashie
Stephen McClashie

Stephen McClashie, MP-elect for La Brea, said while it will be challenging, he will work towards restoring his constituents’ confidence in the PNM.

Mc Clashie defeated UNC’s Victor Roberts, PEP’s (Progressive Empowerment Party) Rondoll Glasgow, NNV’s (New National Vision’s) Callum Marshall and the (MSJ’s) Movement for Social Justice’s Marlon Greaves in the general election.

It will be his first time in Parliament, which he told Newsday he “feels good” and “very positive” about.

While he did not expect a close race, he said, “I expected reduced numbers. That is just based on the groundswell I was getting around people’s dissatisfaction with the Petrotrin restructuring – particularly in the Santa Flora area. You have a lot of people who are not working, and would have been a bit dissatisfied, so I knew they would vote for – generally – the UNC or just might not have voted at all.”

Asked how he plans to restore voters’ confidence in his party, he said through its work on agriculture, job creation and “bread-and-butter items” such as inconsistent water supply and infrastructure.

“It is a challenge, but we are up to the challenge. We have already begun articulating what are the things we are going to do with the dry docks and the velodrome…We have a number of initiatives in agriculture and food processing and so on.

"It’s not going to be easy. People will judge us on whether we deliver for them – within the next five years – the things we say we are going to.”

He added, “And you know, in times of crunch and accessibility to money and so on, sometimes all the things you want to do are not necessarily done as expediently as you expect it to be.

"But I think we are on track to understanding what people need, and by extension – doing it.”

He said he applauds and is “very strongly” supporting the recent upsurge of youth entrepreneurship in the constituency.

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