Mary Lawrence Announces Candidacy

Bodden Town’s Mary
Lawrence has announced
that she would run in the
upcoming 2004 General
Elections in November

Tuesday, July 6, 2004

The district of Bodden Town will have a familiar face on the ballot for November’s General Elections, as Mary J Lawrence announced her candidacy for a seat on the Legislative Assembly last week.

Noting that she brings to her candidacy a wealth of knowledge and experience in the political arena and at the community service level, Mrs Lawrence said that she would run as an independent candidate.

She has worked as a teacher at both the primary and secondary levels, as a writer and government and political editor. In 1982 she and her husband, the late James Lawrence, began the Caymanian Herald newspaper, writing, editing, producing and printing it in their home and distributing it island-wide.

In March 2002 she took up the position of consultant to the Ministry of Community Services advising on and working in the establishment of the CAYS Foundation, the restructuring of the residential homes for boys and girls, as well as other relevant extended programmes.

In recent years she has worked in family-owned business dedicating her spare time as always to community affairs both at the national and district level.

As a Justice of the Peace she has served in Youth and Juvenile Court as well as Summary Court. She served two terms as president of the Justice of the Peace Association, and was instrumental in its training programme for Justices for several years.

Mrs Lawrence was also instrumental in the purchase and establishment of the Wilderness Farm, a viable business now operated by Northward Prison.

Over the years she has served as president of PTAs, was a member of various school boards, a member of the Education Council, the Immigration Board, the Adoption Board, an inspector of Prisons, a founding member of the NCVO and a founding member and Chairperson of the Drug Advisory Council.

She has been involved in the political arena for most of her adult life, seeking political office for the first time in 1968 and has made a significant contribution to the development of government and politics in the years since.

Mrs Lawrence is a strong advocate for children in all areas of their development and is a believer in the development of education as the most important factor in securing the stability and growth of the country and the importance of offering the support necessary for repairing and retaining the social fabric of the home and community as the cornerstone of a democratic society.

“I am concerned by the fragmentation of the Caymanian society and the level of discontent so evident among our people,” she said, “I consider it an honour to have been sought out by a wide cross-section of the Bodden Town district, as a person they feel is suitably qualified and experienced to address the serious issues facing our country and our community.”

Mrs Lawrence believes in planned growth and development and controlled immigration. “For far too long the growth and development of our country has been lopsided, leaving more and more of our people behind as it spirals out of control, and the gaps between the haves and the have-nots widen,” she said, adding that physical development is not a guarantee of stability.

Mrs Lawrence supports constitutional changes that will ensure the rights of the people and provide the checks and balances necessary for accountable leadership and responsible government; and in the maintenance of dignity in the Parliament as a reflection of the people it serves.

She believes in the provision of a system of education that looks on the children and young people as the country’s greatest resource of bodily invests in their development, concentrating on providing classrooms not jail cells, teachers not wardens, and scholarships not incarceration. “Until we make education our number one priority, our growth and development will continue to raise questions in the minds of our people as to whom this country is being developed for,” she said.

Mrs Lawrence was married to the late James Lawrence for 38 years, and is the mother of five daughters and a son, grandmother to nineteen grandchildren, and great grandmother of four.

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