Gibbons wants smaller cruise ship for St George's

WEDNESDAY, MAR. 14: The PLP’s John Gibbons will take on sitting MP Kim Swan in the key seat of St George’s West at the next General Election.

Mr Gibbons will take on Mr Swan and OBA newcomer Nandi Davis in a three-way fight.

He said: “It will boil down to who works hard and shows the people of St George’s they are willing to work hard for them.”

Mr Gibbons added that he wanted to see the old town and former capital become “the cultural centre of this island once again.”

He said: “If we get the locals to come to St George’s, the tourists will follow — most of the time, solutions to tough questions are quite simple.”

Mr Gibbons, 37, said proposals for a boutique hotel and a new marina to attract luxury yachts to the harbour promised well for the future of the town, while expanding the municipal boundaries and possibly moving the main docks east also boded well for economic growth.

And he added that the economic powerhouse of Asia could be canvassed to see if a new cruise ship of a suitable size to pass Town Cut could be sourced.

Mr Gibbons, who works in pest control for Government’s environmental health department, added that he was keen to promote “energy independence” for Bermuda, with help from wind and wave power, to secure the island’s future and position it as a world leader.

And he said he was keen to shake the young people of Bermuda out of political apathy and encouraged them to register to vote and use their power at the ballot box.

Mr Gibbons added that many young people felt politics was “irrelevant” to their lives and some had told him they would not be voting at the next election.

But he said: “We are a demographic which has the least amount of representation in the Houses of Parliament……that’s not conducive to building a better Bermuda.”

He was speaking as Premier Paula Cox announced his candidacy at the PLP’s HQ on Hamilton’s Court Street today.

Ms Cox said Mr Gibbons was “a young man for our times” and said he had impressed her with his competence and consistency.