There is no inherent right as the child or relative of a politician to be elected to Parliament pointed out Santia Bradshaw last night.
Bradshaw herself the daughter of a politician said that such an election must be earned through public life. She was addressing the Barbados Labour Party followers at College Savannah, St John in support of St John candidate Hudson Griffith.
She said that it would be insulting to the people of St John if she put herself forward as their candidate based on her family ties in the parish or based on the fact that she canvassed or was part of her father Delisle Bradshaw’s political life. The latter is a former cabinet minister.
The debate on legacy has been raging in the one-week-old campaign since Mara Thompson, widow of former Prime Minister David Thompson who held the seat from 1987 until his death last October, offered herself as a candidate. It was revealed that it was David Thompson’s dying wish that his wife should replace him in the Democratic Labour Party stronghold.
But Bradshaw, an attorney and candidate for St Michael South East a seat once held by her father, said it would be insulting to use her political pedigree to offer herself and “masquerade as though” she had “an inherent right” to be elected.
“I would not come to you and say I deserve to be elected for any of those reason….I would ask you to have me represent you on the basis of what I have brought to public life…. I’ve defended artists, I’ve defended criminals so anytime I stand on a political platform it is not because I believe I have some inherent right to take on the legacy of my father … People who come to public life do so to serve,” she said.
