Monday, August 27 2007

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At left: Prime Minister Patrick Manning speaking to party supporters at the formal opening of the Ste Madeleine PNM area office....

PRIME MINISTER and PNM political leader Patrick Manning on Saturday urged nationals from every “nook and cranny” to attend a special convention to be held at a school in the East-West corridor on September 1 to discuss the future of Trinidad and Tobago.

Although he kept the name of the school where the convention is expected to be held a secret, Manning added that the Opposition parties do not have the endurance required to lead a country.

Manning was delivering the feature address at the official opening of Ste Madeleine area office at Corinth Settlement on Saturday evening. It was the fourth occasion in recent times that the PNM’s political leader opened a constituency office in San Fernando. He boasted of the Government’s achievement in the area with the construction of a new primary school, the $1.2M multi-purpose basketball court, and PNM housing development policies.

“Over the last five years, Ste Madeleine has not done badly. With the brand new primary school, students are not forced to attend classes at Cocoyea. The quality of the recently opened basketball facility was so good I had to look at its cost,” Manning joked. Youth speaker, Dyanise Christopher, provoked laughter from the gathering when she compared the PNM to the opposition, which she described as very aggravated and out of breath. For all the negative things said about the PNM, Christopher added, the PNM has a positive answer for each.

“The Opposition says that the PNM political leader has no direction, the PNM says we know who our leader is. The Opposition says the 2007/2008 Budget was the worst ever, the PNM says that’s ok, because you will be hearing budgets from the PNM in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and beyond,” Christopher continued as the gathering roared in appreciation.

Almost at the end of Manning’s speech, he asked the gathering: “You like the Budget?” And they replied that they loved it. Manning added, “We did it for you.” Three more area offices are expected to be officially opened soon in San Fernando central, Pleasantville and Orchard Gardens.