The event at the Cultural Centre on Thursday, 2nd October, 2025 has already been recorded in the annals of our political history. Nobody saw it coming. It had been billed simply as an occasion to confer permanence, through letters of designation, on over 600 temporary government workers. But it was more than that. It was also a gesture to grant dignity and opportunity to hundreds of home care givers, who had laboured for more than a decade in providing support to Saint Lucians who are homebound on account of sickness, infirmity, or advanced age. Those people had been waiting to exhale for a long time. And when the man who had made their security of tenure possible appeared on stage, a slow, low chant of “Mi Boss La!” exploded into a massive and prolonged roar of “Mi Boss La! Mi Boss La! Mi Boss La!”

Philip Joseph Pierre, or PJP as he’s regularly called, first ran for political office in 1992 when he challenged the UWP Castries East incumbent, Romanus Lansiquot, for the seat. Romanus Lansiquot proved to be too strong; he easily vanquished PJP with 3,050 votes to Pierre’s 1,958. Undeterred, the SLP newcomer quietly persevered, continuing to build his base, and his case, against a rival who had been characterized as a giant in the politics of the day. It wasn’t easy! Slow of speech (he stammers), and with an unassuming demeanour, he patiently and persistently chipped away at the reservations of the voters of Castries East. What turned the tide for him was an act that very few politicians engage in or even entertain ‒‒ he showed voters his heart and entrusted his vulnerabilities to their care.

And, in 1997, Castries East voters responded overwhelmingly to the man whose heart had won theirs. PJP, whose middle name might as well have been Jack because he proved to be a giant slayer, convincingly won the seat with 4,420 votes to Lansiquot’s 2,377 in the general elections of that year. In doing so, he received more votes than any of the other winning candidates. As Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation, International Financial Services, Commerce, and Consumer Affairs in the Kenny D. Anthony’s Administrations of 1997 and 2001, he handled his portfolios with an unrelenting positive work ethic, intelligence, and the warmth and humility which further endeared him to the Saint Lucian populace. He didn’t know it then, but history was preparing him for a greater and more difficult role.

The SLP lost the general elections of 2006, won in 2011, and lost again in 2016. Allen Chastanet, who had replaced Stephenson King as UWP political leader, became prime minister. Dr. Kenny D. Anthony made the tough but entirely rational decision to step down as SLP political leader soon after the 2016 elections. PJP, now a seasoned veteran with more than twenty years of political experience, received the reins of leadership with a calm resolve. That would become a singularly defining moment of his political career. He had to move the party past the shock defeat, disbelief, postmortem of the loss, and insults from the new UWP Prime Minister, Allen Chastanet, who often made fun of his stuttering.

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In the five-year period, 2016 to 2021, which stood out as the worst performance by any government before and after independence, PJP’s leadership strengthened the SLP and assured Saint Lucians of their sacred obligation to protect their interests. But it was brutal. Allen Chastanet claimed that the SLP had lost its right to speak after its loss at the polls; what became known as the “Belrose Doctrine”, in which the six constituencies held by the SLP were starved of funding, was in full effect and public view for the entire five years; state resources were practically given away to friends, family, and foreigners by the Allen Chastanet regime; Allen Chastanet and Bradley Felix facilitated the most scandalous land deal, aka the DSH giveaway, ever seen in Saint Lucia; and Saint Lucians from all walks of life were treated to the vilest verbal assaults for daring to even question the actions of the UWP government. Not even journalists were spared!

Small wonder, then, that on 26th July, 2021, the UWP suffered its second worst defeat of its history ‒‒ winning only two of the 17 available seats. And in a remarkable show of returning good governance to the several institutions the five-year reign of the UWP had corrupted, PJP and his SLP team refused to return tit-for-tat to the two UWP parliamentarians, while they methodically and painstakingly rebuilt the economy which the UWP government had decimated. Additionally, in stark contrast to the roughshod manner employed by the former government when making decisions or attempting to silence its critics, PJP gave life to his campaign slogans “Putting People First” and “PJP Cares”.

So, on the evening of Thursday, 2nd October, 2025, raw and unfiltered emotions gushed from the hearts of over 600 home care givers who had witnessed, before then, the many ways in which PJP’s and his team’s campaign slogans were being manifested to benefit all the citizenry. They had felt the hard hand of Allen Chastanet when he, almost singlehandedly, stopped the home care program in 2017 and plunged them into joblessness while also depriving the elderly and shut-in from a critical service. Now, PJP had not only reinstated the program, he had also given the workers security of tenure which they had not had before.

Again and again, the full-throated cry of “Mi Boss La! Mi Boss La! Mi Boss La!” thundered throughout the Cultural Centre when PJP took to the stage. Those people were not engaging in flattery or hyperbole, they were simply paying tribute to a genuine servant leader who had won their hearts.

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