By Lincoln Depradine
Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell has implored the country’s nationals, including those residing in Canada, against putting “factional interests over national interests”, so that “Team Grenada” could benefit.
Mitchell, an attorney-at-law, has also called for “healing” and has denounced the placing of “personal egos and ambition over the interests of the nation”, and has expressed displeasure at Grenadians who “play position rather than team”.
“There is only one team and that team is Team Grenada,” Mitchell said in an address Last Saturday in Toronto.
“Grenada belongs to all of us. And it is all of us who are required to make the difference and to make Grenada a spectacular, special, wonderful place for the next 50 years.”
This year is the 50th anniversary of Grenada’s independence, which includes the Grenadine islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
The country, a former British colony, obtained its independence on February 7, 1974, with the late Sir Eric Gairy as its first prime minister.
Grenada, beginning last October, launched a year-long series of golden jubilee activities under the theme “One People, One Journey, One Future”.
Nationals in Toronto are marking the occasion with various events including last Saturday’s “Independence Gala”, which was spearheaded by the Grenada Association Toronto (GAT).
A cultural presentation, titled “Showcase Grenada”, is scheduled for 1 pm, Sunday, February 18. It will be held at the Jamaican Canadian Centre, 995 Arrow Road.
“You have the opportunity to lead and to shape the Grenada of the next 50 years,” Prime Minister Mitchell told Grenadians at the gala, which was attended by more than 600 people, including 103-year-old Grenadian Hilda James.
Other attendees included diplomats, business executives and federal Liberal Party parliamentarians Ahmed Hussen, who is minister of international development and MP Michael Coteau, who has direct family ties to Carriacou.
Mitchell, in his address, said neither Grenada’s small size, nor internal challenges – such as public protests against Gairy, a national strike and an electricity blackout – daunted him as he pursued in leading the country to independence.
“Notwithstanding those difficult circumstances” and “against the odds” and “the trials”, Gairy believed that Grenadians, “as a people with hope, a people of resilience, a people who have gone through struggles, that we were entitled to chart our own course and our own destiny”, said Mitchell, who was accompanied on the Toronto visit by MP Andy Mitchell, his minister of mobilization, implementation and transformation.
The two, along with Grenada’s consul general in Toronto, Gerry Hopkin, joined in the distribution of GAT scholarships to five recipients, as well as awards to five others for professional achievement and community service.
Live entertainment from Dance Caribe and from a band, headed by award-winning musician Eddie Bullen, also formed part of the evening.
Mitchell raised a toast in commemoration of the 2024 independence anniversary. He also led a moment of silence and asked the audience to stand, as a mark of respect, to Anthony Conrad George.
Grenada-born George, 86, died February 7 in the United Kingdom. He was responsible for Grenada’s red, green and gold national flag that was hoisted for the first time at independence in 1974.
“This is the first public opportunity that I am getting to acknowledge and pay tribute to Mr. Anthony Conrad George. Mr. Anthony Conrad George is the main architect of Grenada’s national flag,” Mitchell said.
The Grenada United Labour Party, led by Gairy, was overthrown in 1979 and replaced by Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and the People Revolutionary Government. The revolution imploded and Bishop and some of his cabinet colleagues were assassinated on October 19, 1983.
The United States invaded Grenada on October 25, 1983, and the country subsequently returned to parliamentary rule.
“Grenada has had some low moments; some painful moments; some moments that some of us are yet to come to terms with,” said Mitchell, the 45-year-old who became prime minister in June 2022.
He said, however, that with the 50th anniversary of independence celebrations, Grenadians at home and abroad have demonstrated a “palpable sense of unity and national pride”, putting aside their differences.
“I want to encourage us to seize this moment to continue on the path of healing,” Mitchell urged. “The “common thread” that connects Grenadians is “the love for our country”.
“We are still one people who have travelled the same journey to get to this point in our nation’s history. And, having done so, it is for us to make sure that we can chart that one future for the next generation of Grenadians.
“I’m confident that as long as we remain united, that as long as we put the nation’s best interests above our personal interests, that we can, collectively, truly create not just a natural gem that the good Lord has blessed us with but a gem of humanity that others can view as an example.”
Mitchell pledged to continue in the service of building a Grenada “for the next generation of Grenadians so that, 50 years from now, they too can look back at this seminal moment in our history and be proud that, together, we made the right choices to put country over political party; to build our institutions of governance over personal ambition for power; to serve and walk away when it’s time to walk away; to love and to forgive when it’s time to forgive. And to hold each other’s hands and set the example for the next generation of Grenadians”.
Mitchell thanked Grenadians in Canada that have contributed “in building and making Grenada what it is today”.
His presence at the Toronto event, said Mitchell, “is really to thank you for the tremendous support, the hard work and the love that you have given to the nation of Grenada over the last 50 years. And, to encourage you to continue doing so for the next 50 years and beyond”.
Mitchell disclosed that he intends to visit Calgary soon and is also planning a return Toronto visit in September.
“I look forward to seeing all of you on my return in September,” he said. “I want to make sure wherever there are Grenadians, I get the opportunity to meet, greet and speak with them so that we continue working together to build this lovely land of ours.”
