Former long-serving Barbados Labour Party (BLP) Parliamentarian Gline Clarke will on Friday be accorded the party’s highest honour, the Grantley Adams Award.
Prime Minister Mia Mottley made this announcement Sunday night during a mass meeting at Market Hill in the St George North constituency, where the party faithful gathered to rally in support of their candidate to replace Clarke at the November 11 by-election, Toni Moore.
Clarke, who gave the constituency 26 years of unbroken service, resigned as Member of Parliament and Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly at the end of September, to take up the post of High Commissioner to Canada.
“On Friday night, I will have the opportunity to be able to hand out to Gline the highest award of the Barbados Labour Party, the Grantley Adams Award,” Mottley said.
The veteran politician will receive the honour on the opening day of the BLP’s two-day 81st annual conference at the St George Secondary School.
Mottley said the award belongs as much to the people of St George North as it does to Clarke, “because in him you saw a man who is committed to you and you saw a man who never pretended to be God”.
“He just simply wanted to do his best,” she said. “He deserves the Grantley Adams Award because he embodies what that award is about, in terms of commitment not just to party but to country and the constituency.”
Commenting on Clarke’s tireless support for the BLP’s candidate to be his successor, Mottley said she has been in public life for 31 years with Clarke serving just a bit longer and she was impressed with the retired politician’s work in this campaign, “every single day walking with Toni Moore, [being on] every single platform speaking for Toni Moore”.
Noting her vast experiences in general elections and by-elections, Mottley said: “I have never seen the commitment to cause, to constituency, to party and to the successor than I have seen in Gline Clarke in this campaign”. (GA)
