An everyday Grenadian, striving to lift his country and most importantly his neighbourhood; so it can become a better place for the present and future generations.
Randal Robinson was born on a blissful day in the year 1963 to Robert and Inez Robinson and raised in the village of Creighton St. Paul’s, alongside his brother Alan and sister Heather.
As a youth; he played an active role in the development of his community, joining several village groups. Randal took the forefront for many village activities such as neighbourhood clean ups and sporting events.
Mr. Robinson remained the same intuitive person throughout his teens and early adulthood, always taking time to look out for the less fortunate.
Blessed with musical talent, his vocals stood out from a young age. An active member of the Methodist Church during his youth, he became the lead singer in its choir in a short period of time. In fact, it is his musical talent that has made him into man that he is today.
He is a bass baritone classical soloist with the famous Lydian Singers of Trinidad & Tobago where he was Manager for 5 years.
Randal has sung the lead roles in three operas and many other classical works, besides being a soloist. His great singing talent led to him being invited to perform for the Heads of Government as well at the 5th Summit of the Americas held in Port of Spain, Trinidad in April of 2009.
A man of many talents, Mr. Robinson can be described as the complete package due to his leadership and entrepreneurial skills.
Following in his parents footsteps, Randal has been an active member of trade unions both in Trinidad & Tobago -T&TEC Northern Branch Vice President – Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) and Grenada — 1st Vice President — Commercial and Industrial Workers Union (CIWU).
This man from St. Paul’s is also playing an active role in the tourism sector. Mr. Robinson is the Managing Director of the highly acclaimed Adventure Jeep and Adventure River tubing tours. Adventure River tubing has been voted Princess Cruise Lines High Volume Tour of the year 2010–2011. This is the second time Adventure River tubing has won this prestigious award.
Community focused, Randal considers himself fortunate to be called upon to serve at a higher level in his community. He is presently the Assistant District Co-ordinator for NADMA in the St. George South East Constituency. His mentor Pat Bishop (now deceased) has always reminded him of the famous quote from Luke 12:48 “…to whom much is given, much is required…” Now, more than ever before, Grenada needs citizens with integrity and skills to offer themselves for public office to help the nation to fulfil its promise.
Confirming his status as one of the hardest working individual on the island, Mr. Robinson is also well known within the cultural field in Grenada.
He has been championing local culture for a number of years, and has stated in the past that he intends on living to see the day when Grenada is considered the most culturally diverse island within the Western Hemisphere. Furthermore he is a respected calypso judge, and currently serves as the PRO of the calypso judges association.
Recently, in a bid to bring much needed change to his beloved nation, Mr. Randal Robinson decided to put his hat into the mix for the Grenadian election of 2013. He stated that his old choir Mistress Dr Pat Bishop (PC) motivated him to get involved in politics because she noticed that he had great relationship with people. Mr. Robinson further stated that getting involved in politics was an easy decision for him to make as he was motivated by persons such as Anthony Parke, Pauline Stewart, Valisca Edwards, Phillip Telesford, Dorothy Lessey, Wilfred Baptiste, and Ingrid Scantlebury, who helped to get him off the ground.
A candidate for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), in the St. George South East Constituency in the recent elections, Mr. Robinson lost the seat to Mr. Gregory Bowen of the New National Party (NNP), whose party won all 15 constituencies.
In an interview conducted with Mr. Anthony Parke, a former Teacher and Principal of J.W. Fletcher Primary School and Chairman of the NDC St.George South East Constituency Branch, when asked the question of whether he believed that Mr. Robinson would make a good representative for SGSE he stated the following “Absolutely, I think he was a perfect pick as representative for the constituency of SGSE. Mr. Robinson is a people’s person and likes community work, his record is clear. He is relative young, very energetic and academically inclined to do so”. Many community persons share similar sentiments as Mr. Parke, as Randal has portrayed himself as a man of great character, one the younger generation can emulate.
Mr. Robinson’s love for his community; was laid out in what can be referred to as his vision for his community, “ Our St. George South East constituency is the proud and stable home to many generations of people of faith and family. We have provided Grenada with some of its best tradesmen and women of stature, farmers, professionals, teachers and steel bandsmen. Today, our young people are being anchored and re-enforced in the good old-fashioned values of their parents and grandparents. They must all embrace that which is good and healthy in order for them to be the best that they can be in a modern Grenada. Together, we can achieve great things for St. George South East. Our constituency must be a place of prosperity, community energy, social enlightenment, enterprise and production.”
Mr. Robinson whose election plans for the constituency included:
- Providing leadership by consensus and with full participation of constituents.
- Putting mechanisms in place to enable/encourage youth, women’s, and men’s groups to participate in governance of the constituency.
- Providing support for entrepreneurship development by matching skills with demand and exploiting the community’s resources to train people to create their own opportunities.
- Creating a job bank for the constituency to match skills with opportunities.
Mr. Robinson stated that despite his defeat at the poll in 2013 general elections, he will strive to deliver most of his plans to the constituents of St. George South East.
Simply put, Mr. Randal Robinson can only be described as a once in a generation individual, determined to create a brighter future for all, within this lovely island of ours.
Written by Valisca Edwards
MST-221
TAMCC – Media Studies
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