Living Prime Ministers: A salute to great leaders
The five living prime ministers of Jamaica, Edward Seaga, P.J. Patterson, Portia Simpson Miller, Bruce Golding and Andrew Holness have all contributed to the country’s development as an independent nation in his or her own unique ways.
Edward George Seaga served two terms as prime minister, from 1980 to 1989, and was the youngest person to be appointed to the Legislative Council at age 29. In 1982, Seaga established The Heart Trust/NTA with the aim of creating a skills-training employment programme which would equip workers with the necessary knowledge and skills needed for productivity.
Percival James Patterson Jamaica’s longest-serving prime minister, was in office from 1992 to 2006. In an attempt to sprout economic growth, the Patterson-led administration crafted the idea, in the 1999, to develop a road network that would connect Jamaica’s main towns. In recognition of his contribution to the project, the east-west leg of Highway 2000 was renamed the P.J. Patterson Highway in 2015.
Portia Simpson Miller is the first woman to be appointed prime minister of Jamaica. When she won the 2011 election, she became the second individual since independence to have served non-consecutive terms as prime minister, Michael Manley being the first. In 2012, she was ranked by Time magazine among its '100 Most Influential Persons in the World'. She was also named Person of the Year in the Gleaner awards in 2011.
Bruce Golding served as Jamaica’s eighth prime minister from September 2007 to October 2011. To date, he is the youngest person to be elected to parliament at 26 years old, representing the people of West St Catherine. According to Gleaner columnist Orville Taylor, the 2008 amendment of the Employment Termination and Redundancy Payment regulations, and the 2010 amendment to the Labour Relations and Industrial Dispute Act were two major contributions Golding made to Jamaica’s labour force.
Andrew Holness became Jamaica’s youngest prime minister at the age of 39. He is in the second year of his second term in office. “His first term is almost nothing to talk about for those couple of months when he first became prime minister,” Taylor explained. “This time, though, I think he is learning on his feet.”
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