DLP leader supports under-fire candidate

Democratic Labour President (DLP) Verla De Peiza on Sunday expressed her confidence in young, first-time political candidate Dawn-Marie Armstrong who issued a public apology last week after being blasted on social media for controversial comments at the launch of the party’s election campaign.

Armstrong spoke about being a mother and compared De Peiza, who is also a mother, to Prime Minister Mia Mottley who is childless.

She said at the meeting in St Checker Hall, St Lucy: “Checker Hall… in your representative Verla De Peiza and in me, Dawn-Marie Armstrong, you have two women with families, with children, that truly understand what it is to sacrifice, that truly understand what it is to care, and you have our Prime Minister stealing our hard work, the blood, sweat and tears that we have put into bearing children and raising them in this country, coming again three and a half years later to say she still cares. But how, Ma’am? But how do you care? How have you shown it? What have you done?”

“And you all compare my president to this Prime Minister, and I say this without apology: You cannot compare a bulldog to a Great Dane; same animal but a different breed. And everything that you have said about my president is because she is a woman. She speaks like a woman, she talks like a woman, she carries herself like a woman. And I as a woman cannot stand here and allow her to be victimized for being who she is because the same fate will fall on me.”

During Sunday’s political meeting, De Peiza pointed out that Armstrong was the first politician to apologise, citing instances on other political platforms where people were referred to as nanny goats and other disparaging names.

“Comrade Dawn-Marie Williams let me tell you, I speak on behalf of the whole of the Democratic Labour Party and the whole of Barbados to tell you that when you make a mistake and you apologise, you are a big person. That is what is important. She has a long political future and that has them worried, that is what the problem is for them,” she said.

In her brief address to supporters at Sunday’s meeting, Armstong said amid the events of the past few days, “she was even more committed to representing because of women, single mothers, single parents, children and the elderly in our country”.

On the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) platform, Prime Minister Mia Mottley made clear she had enough of the disparaging comments made against the women of her party.

While making no reference to Armstrong’s comments, the BLP leader said: “How much more of this misogyny? How much more of this woman-hating? Do you understand that they are doing it to your daughters, your mothers, your grandmothers, your granddaughters?

“I have borne every insult, every slap because it is not about me, but as leader of this party, I am not going to let you insult the women in the Barbados Labour Party anymore. This country deserves better and can do better.” (BT)