The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Deputy Chief Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

FOX Hill MP Fred Mitchell last night launched his re-election campaign, pledging to spend the majority of his time, if victorious in the 2017 general elections, combating social ills in the constituency.

While speaking to scores of supporters, Prime Minister Perry Christie praised the work of Mr Mitchell, who also serves as foreign affairs and immigration minister, insisting that over the years the MP displayed stellar performance in carrying out the nation’s work abroad.

He said this would explain to colleagues the minister’s travel expenses, which have been the subject of heated debate during the Christie administration’s term in office.

“The most important thing for me is that I have the opportunity to select a Cabinet and I have to determine who to best speak for the Commonwealth of The Bahamas,” Mr Christie told the audience packed into the Faith Mission Church of God at Fox Hill Road South and Davis Street.

“When I made the choice initially my justification came as I travelled with him around the world firstly in the Caribbean. It didn’t take him long to be noted, to be recognised and to have his talents used by fellow prime ministers in the region.

“When it came to selecting persons in the region it was safe recognising that Fred had all of the skills. And as we travelled the commonwealth of the world to global conferences where leaders assembled to address issues of the global nature, I had a remarkable experience where I saw foreign ministers walk up to him from places as far away as India, Australia and Africa and say ‘Hey Fred’ - that would explain to my colleagues why the travel is so expensive.”

For his part, Mr Mitchell briefly outlined his plans for the Fox Hill community, saying that he recognised the challenges prevalent in his constituency. Chief among these he said were social problems among the youth.

He said: “All of our institutions are now increasingly dominated by females (and) there is nothing intrinsically wrong with that, but the males cannot be left behind and we cannot throw our hands up in the air and say ‘that’s just the way it is’.

“The administration under which I serve led by the prime minister believes in social intervention and that’s why Urban Renewal exists and that is why we committed to doubling the investment in education.

“So moving forward in order to assist this community here is what I propose to do: to spend most of my time trying to deal with this social issue, get all of our young men engaged, also lift the self esteem of our girls so that they know they can grow up to be anyone in this society. In doing so I plan to start in the fall, in February of next year, the production of West Side story which is of course a story about gang fighting and how that leads to death and destruction,” Mr Mitchell said.