Governor Tim Foy
A new Leader of the Opposition, Mrs. Cora Richardson Hodge, formerly Minister of Home Affairs and Deputy Leader of the Anguilla United Front (AUF), was sworn in by Governor Tim Foy, OBE, on Thursday afternoon, July 3, in the Executive Council’s Chambers.
A new Leader of the Opposition, Mrs. Cora Richardson Hodge, formerly Minister of Home Affairs and Deputy Leader of the Anguilla United Front (AUF), was sworn in by Governor Tim Foy, OBE, on Thursday afternoon, July 3, in the Executive Council’s Chambers.
Mrs. Richardson Hodge was one of four AUF candidates who won seats in the elections on June 26 and 29. She defeated Mr. Jerome Roberts, the Anguilla Progressive Movement’s candidate in the District 2 Sandy Hill constituency.
The former Minister of Home Affairs was accompanied at the swearing in ceremony by her colleagues in the past AUF Government, family members and supporters.
Governor Foy said in part: “Welcome back to the former members of the Executive Council. I want to begin by paying tribute to you, the outgoing Government, for the contribution you made over five years. I want to recognise, from my own perspective, the great joy and happiness I had working with you. I have learnt a tremendous amount from all of you. In particular Mr. Banks, I have learnt the importance of building bridges amongst several things.”
The Governor continued: “An active and effective opposition within our collective Westminster system of parliamentary democracy is fundamental to the working of Government. While people will always think about Ministers and Premiers, a truly effective Leader of the Opposition is vital to ensure that the interests of the nation are always held first and foremost.
“It is with great pleasure that I ask Cora Mae Richardson Hodge to take the Oath of Allegiance and the Oath of Due Execution of Office to be the Honourable Leader of the Opposition…Ladies and gentlemen I hope you all join me in congratulating the Leader of the Opposition. We wish her well and I know she will continue her prolific duty of public service in the same way as she performed in an exemplary way as Minister of Education, Library Services and a few other things (Constitutional Affairs, Labour, Immigration) etc.”
Mrs. Richardson Hodge replied: “Thanks to everyone for coming out this afternoon. I want to thank the former Honourable Premier, Mr. Victor Banks, for his leadership over the past five years; and I think that all of us would have learnt under his guidance. I also want to thank the other members of the Opposition who nominated and selected me to be the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Assembly. I promise that we will do the job that we were elected to do in the House.”
Mr. Banks addressed the gathering as follows:
“First of all, thank all of you for the support you gave us over the last couple of weeks and certainly leading up to the election. At the end of the day we were not successful in forming the Government but we feel very comfortable that even though we are not the Government, we are the most powerful Opposition that had ever existed in the history of Anguilla (to be hyperbolic like a number of my adversaries are).
“We are pleased today to swear in Mrs. Cora Mae Richardson Hodge as the Leader of the Opposition. As you know she has been the Deputy Leader of the party for the last year-and-a-half/two years. In addition, she has demonstrated that she is a very assertive, innovative and creative leader. She works hard and focuses on the work that is necessary for the advancement of Anguilla – especially in the areas which have a touch of legal significance to Anguilla’s development. She is a Lawyer, and as a consequence, she has done exceptionally well in supporting the Government in understanding and appreciating the importance of legislation for the furtherance of Anguilla and Anguilla’s development.
“The Constitutional exercise was led by her and a number of important pieces of legislation were channelled by her throughout the process in the House of Assembly. As a consequence, the people of Anguilla are better off. Even for this last election, the fact is that we were able to put in place an amendment to the Constitution to affect the expansion of the House of Assembly. It created four additional seats which will now make us in Anguilla have a much more representative House of Assembly. It has enabled a number of young people to be part of the process. I think this is commendable. She has received the support of her colleagues, of course, but she would have led that process along with her team.
“Today, we are happy to know that she has been sworn in as the Leader of the Opposition and she has a formidable team with her: a former Leader of the Opposition, the Honourable Evans McNiel Rogers; a former Member of the House of Assembly, the Honourable Cardigan Connor; and a very ambitious and exciting young man who was the First Nominated Member of the House of Assembly and Deputy Speaker, the Honourable Jose Vanterpool. So this is a formidable team made up of course of women and men and young people – and very capable men, women and young people.
“We are pleased to know that despite the fact that we have not been able to form the Government, we have been successful in putting a formidable Opposition in place and this will be important for Anguilla going forward.
“Obviously, as the Governor mentioned in his presentation, the Opposition is a very important part of the democratic process and to be able to keep the Government on track; to be able to point out areas of concern which are raised by the wider populace and also issues which are important for the further development of our country.
“Anguilla has come a long way. We are proud of our record as the outgoing Government. We have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. We believe we have done well for Anguilla. We believe that going forward it is important that the incoming Government recognises the importance of our contribution and work to further that. We all stand on the shoulders of giants and if they adopt that approach that they will stand on our shoulders and carry forward the work for Anguilla we will be in a better place. We are looking forward to that, but we are going to give the Government an opportunity to do its work and we will continue to work hard to consolidate our party.
“As you know, for Mr. Rogers and myself, this would have been our last term. I have had the privilege of getting out before this term begins; he has to wait a bit longer. At the end of the day we have a party which is resilient; which is deep and, as a consequence, we will be able to put ourselves together to create a formidable…Government after the next election.”
