Acknowledging that not everything was delivered exactly as intended over the past seven years, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley yesterday told Barbadians that while the work of transformation was still unfinished, her Government remained firmly on course and deserved the country’s permission to continue.
Mottley was addressing a large, red-clad crowd at Checker Hall playing field, St Lucy, as she mounted the platform during the Barbados Labour Party’s (BLP) Errol Barrow Day celebrations, formally signalling the start of the party’s General Election campaign and throwing her full support behind incumbent for that constituency, Peter Phillips.
“This is the third time that I have started a campaign as leader of this great party but it is the first time that I am doing so on a day that is acclaimed to be special for one of our national heroes, the Father of Independence, Errol Walton Barrow,” Mottley said, explaining that the choice of St Lucy was deliberate – both as Barrow’s birthplace and as the constituency from which the campaign would be launched.
Reflecting on the condition of Barbados when the BLP first assumed office, the Prime Minister told supporters the country was in deep distress.
“When I first came to you two elections ago, Barbados was a very different place. Barbados was a place where people had lost hope, where sewage was running, where people’s pockets were completely empty and the country completely broke,” she said.
“You know when a patient is bleeding out, the first thing you’ve got to do is stop the bleeding and we told you that when we stopped the bleeding, we would work hard to resuscitate this country and to give you hope and opportunity again,” Mottley added.
She warned against historical amnesia, telling the crowd that forgetting where the country had come from risked repeating past failures.
“I stand here tonight not forgetting in any way the condition from which we have come, because the day you forget where you have come from is the day you are liable to repeat the mistakes of the past,” she said.
Pointing to widespread construction activity across the island, Mottley said Barbados was now visibly rebuilding.
“Anybody flying over Barbados will believe that this whole island is almost a construction site. Roads being done; water mains being dug up; houses being built; hotels being built – all kinds of activity,” she said.
However, she accepted that the scale of the task meant progress was uneven and incomplete.
“The mission which you gave us to transform this nation was so large that, in spite of everything else, we are still on course to get there but we are not quite there yet,” she told supporters.
“Therefore, at the beginning of this campaign, we come to you to report for duty and to ask you for the most sacred of things – your permission to continue the job.”
Mottley detailed a range of measures implemented under her administration, including three public sector wage increases in seven years, increases in the minimum wage to $10.50 an hour, pension increases, reductions in income and land taxes, expanded maternity leave, the introduction of paternity leave, free tertiary education and major investments in public transport, sanitation and health care.
“These are not promises. Promises are comforts to a fool. These are real things achieved,” she said, noting that the latest minimum wage increases alone amounted to more than $135 extra per week for the lowest-paid workers.
Turning to St Lucy’s long-standing water challenges, Mottley said the Government had deliberately chosen to shield residents while long-term solutions were being implemented.
“We told you that we would take care of you while we take care of the brown water,” she said, reminding residents that Government had covered the basic water rate for affected households.
“Since April 2025, you have seen water mains being dug up all over St Lucy and while it is nowhere near perfect, people are already saying that the water is no longer as brown and no longer as bad as it used to be.”
She described the water issue as an example of what governance looked like in practice – gradual, disruptive and sometimes inconvenient, but necessary.
“You can’t build without dust. You can’t build without disruption, but we know that when we reach the destination, there is enough for everybody in this country,” she said.
Placing the election in a broader context, Mottley warned that global instability – from climate shocks to war and geopolitical tension – posed serious risks for small, tourismdependent states like Barbados.
“This election campaign is not simply about the things we would normally talk about,” she said. “It is about your future and the future of this country to remain independent and capable of charting its own affairs” .
In sharp political contrast, Mottley criticised the Democratic Labour Party, arguing that it had drifted from the legacy and principles of Errol Barrow and was unprepared for the realities of modern governance.
“This Barbados Labour Party has never professed to be perfect, but we are good for Barbados and we are good for you.”
As she closed, the Prime Minister urged supporters not to take victory for granted, calling on them to verify their registration, mobilise voters and campaign actively over the next three weeks.
“This is a mission in progress,” she said.
“There will be disruption, there will be inconvenience but all we are asking for now is your permission to continue to take charge.” (CLM)
Pictures by Sandy Pitt
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