Neil Armstrong, Gleaner Writer
TORONTO, Canada:
BRAVING THE frigid weather of -15 degrees Celsius, hundreds of Jamaicans, members of the Caribbean Diplomatic Corps and friends piled into the Jamaica Canadian Association (JCA) Centre, Toronto, on Saturday night to bid farewell to Prime Minister P.J. Patterson.
Mr. Patterson flew into Toronto on Friday to launch 'Jamaica: The Ultimate Tour', a travelogue of Jamaica through the eyes of the Prime Minister. The programme's host, Peter Greenberg, spent five days with Mr. Patterson, to showcase the country on the Travel Channel in the United States.
He said the last 14 years had been extremely challenging for the Caribbean and Jamaica, but he had set out to build a modern economy in Jamaica. "To survive you have to be able to effectively compete. To chart your own course, you have to be able to chart your destiny." Mr. Patterson said that was what led him to pull Jamaica out of "the lion's jaw of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and now the country has net international reserves of over $2 billion.
SOCIAL ADVANCES
Mr. Patterson also spoke of the social advances made under his administration - a national health protection fund, addressing HIV/AIDS, diabetes and obesity, and education.
"Everybody knows the party to which I belong is always committed to education," said Mr. Patterson. He said that given the knowledge-based global society, levels of performance in education had to be shifted in all areas of the system, from basic school to primary to university.
Sandra Carnegie-Douglas, president of the Jamaica Canadian Association, said the prime minister had left a legacy of visionary leadership and an outstanding record of political fortitude and dedication to the development and stability of Jamaica, the Caribbean com-munity and to African development and pan-Africanism. She also praised him for stepping to the fore when the Haitian people called for support.
