Garvey’s PPP names second candidate for local polls
THE People’s Political Party (PPP) Thursday presented a 54-year-old chicken farmer — with a strong record of community volunteer work — as a candidate in the upcoming local elections.
Claude Dussard, of Inverness, who is married and has three children, will be a candidate for South Western St Ann’s Alexandria Division, said PPP vice-president Moses Henriques, during a news conference at the party’s downtown headquarters. About 15 PPP supporters attended.
A former member of the ruling People’s National Party (PNP), Dussard is the second candidate the PPP has put forth. They also recently nominated Clement “Sepie” Dawes, 57, to represent the Linstead Division in Northwest St Catherine.
The party is calling for broader social initiatives, government decentralisation, and an end to the privatisation of government industries.
In addition, it advocates the decriminalisation of marijuana and favours repatriation to Africa for Jamaicans who want to return to their ancestral homeland.
Dussard, echoing the party’s philosophy of self-reliance and pride — dating to founder Marcus Garvey — called for better schools and more respect for the environment.
He called for free lunches for school children, better educational programmes, and said he’d work to see that every house in his native Iverness has a toilet.
Saying values needed to be reinforced, Dussard complained that young men “must take more responsibility for their children”.
Decentralising government and creating local councils, he said, would give residents grass-roots political power. The present Westminster system is not responding sufficiently to the needs of communities, he contended.
At the same time, he has urged Jamaicans to take advantage of the country’s fertile tropical climate and produce more of what they consume.
“We have to find answers for our survival. Looking to America and Europe is not the answer,” he said.
“The government is attracted to big business and whatever big business wants, it gets at the expense of the people,” said Moses, noting that the PPP is considering five other candidates who, he said, must undergo rigorous background checks.
As a young man, Dussard migrated to England and briefly attended college, but financial problems forced him to drop out, he said. He then worked a variety of positions in the transit system, including a stint as a bus driver.
In 1972, Dussard said, he had a chance meeting with the charismatic Michael Manley in England, and the former prime minister encouraged him to return to Jamaica to help rebuild the country.
Heeding Manley’s call, Dussard returned to the island and joined the Jamaica Omnibus Service. He worked as a bus driver and he went on to become a union delegate, representing 3,000 workers.
In 1979, Dussard was transferred to the Montego Bay City Bus Company, where he worked as a bus driver and union delegate.
A member of the Born Again Holiness Church in Iverness, Dussard returned to the community in 1984 after the bus company closed. He has chalked up an extensive record of volunteer work, which has revolved around helping youths, schools, and various social programmes.
Explaining his switch form the PNP to the PPP, Dussard said the PNP had lost its way over the years, following the death of Michael Manley.