André Ebanks to lead new ‘Caymanian Community Party’ in battle for government

Former deputy premier André Ebanks will lead a new political group – the Caymanian Community Party – into the next general election.

The party has announced seven candidates, including five sitting MPs – Ebanks, Wayne Panton Katherine Ebanks-Wilks, Sabrina Turner and Heather Bodden.

The two newcomers to the group are Emily DeCou, a sustainability advocate who ran as an independent last time, and Osbourne Bodden, a former Cabinet minister with the Progressives, who had been tipped to run with them again.

New candidates are expected to be added in the coming weeks with the party aiming to compete to win the majority 10 seats needed to form a government. The announcement today is the first big move in the race for the government with a general election looming in April.

Ebanks, who quit the independent coalition in October along with three other MPs, has moved fast to be one of the key figures in developing a party that will seek to be part of the political scene for years to come. He was unanimously elected leader at a founder’s meeting on Sunday.

Full video interview: The Caymanian Community Party

Former EY partner Dan Scott is also on the cusp of launching his own party while the Progressives are assembling a team to run in at least 15 constituencies. Less is known about the intentions of the remaining government members although both McKeeva Bush and Chris Saunders have discussed forming groups to run collectively.

The manoeuvring represents a seismic shift for Cayman politics which has been dominated by independents for at least two election cycles.

Ebanks, first elected to parliament in 2021, said it is “the honour of my life” to be unanimously elected as the leader of Cayman’s newest political party.

After a chaotic four years of constantly switching alliances that has seen two premiers, four deputy premiers and three speakers in Parliament, he believes people are craving the stability offered by political parties.

Core principles

In an interview with the Compass – Ebanks, alongside Osbourne Bodden and Heather Bodden – outlined the core principles of their fledgling party.

“Our people feel they are losing their grip on their country. We need a party that is for Caymanians and by Caymanians,” he said.

“We know that our community is hurting, it is fragmented, it’s tense,” he said.

“We must get back to putting our people first.”

Heather Bodden, the MP for Savannah, said community involvement was central to the party’s platform – listening to Caymanians and developing policies that address their needs.

“This party is above board and we are working for the better of Caymanians. We all know what has happened in the past, and I think in this go round, we all aim to make sure that our Caymanians are taken care of, our people are looked after.”

Highlighting familiar issues including cost of living, population and immigration, planning and development, and education among the principle areas of concern, the group said the party would be putting together a manifesto in partnership with the community with a “grassroots up” approach.

Ebanks acknowledged that other parties and candidates would be staking out similar ground, saying, “the issues are obvious, the solutions not so much”.

He added, “Everybody knows the issues, the question the electorate is going to want to answer in the future weeks is, ‘How do you plan to tackle (those issues)’ and that’s what we’ll be rolling out over the next few weeks.”

Party structure needed

Despite being part of the government for much of the last four years, Ebanks and Heather Bodden acknowledged the experiment with such a disparate independent coalition had not worked.

“Experience is the greatest teacher,” said Ebanks, indicating that he now believes the party structure is the best way to achieve meaningful change at a local and national level.

He said the party was developing constituency branches that would help develop ideas and select candidates in future elections.

Osbourne Bodden was unequivocal in his assessment of the last four years.

“From the outside, I would say that the country feels that it has not worked. We’ve seen a lot of turmoil, a lot of change of leadership, and we therefore feel that the way forward has to be with structured politics, with structured parties.”

As the different groups develop and roll out their manifestos, he said people would have a clear idea what they are voting for.

“I think when you throw a bunch of individuals into a basket, you’re not sure what’s going to come out, whereas with a party, you know that this is what they’re about.”

Bodden acknowledged he had to “eat my words” after telling the Compass last year that the political scene was a circus he no longer wanted to be part of.

But he said he was encouraged by the shift towards structured parties and, despite overtures from his old colleagues in the Progressives, decided the Caymanian Community Party was more closely aligned with his ideals.

He will run in Bodden Town West against independent MP Chris Saunders, who has also floated the idea of forming a party or team.

The CCP manifesto is still in development and the structure and community offices are still coming together. All three candidates said the aim was to create a party that lasted for the next several decades.

Policy goals

The presence of Panton and DeCou and the fact that the four MPs resigned over the conservation act controversy suggests the party will have a more pro-environment element than some others.

Ebanks insisted they were not “anti-development” but said Cayman had to move away from the transactional project by project approach to development and look at the country as a whole.

He said the aim was to develop a vision for the country for the next 25 years – encompassing development, population, education, labour, technology and AI among other key pillars – and use that as the basis for decision-making.

Perhaps surprisingly they did not rule out cruise piers.

Bodden, who was involved in previous efforts dating back to 2005 to bring piers to the island, said he supports the concept, if done properly.

Ebanks maintained the party is against a referendum on piers at the general election and that significantly more legwork was needed to get to the point where an informed decision could be made.

“What’s missing from the equation is a long-term strategy for cruise and tourism in this country,” he said.

Leadership

Despite being a relative newcomer to parliamentary politics, Ebanks said his work in the civil service and in the London office had given him a ‘backstage pass’ to the arena that enabled him to navigate the different branches of government. His private sector career as an attorney also helped him understand the economics of the country, he added.

He insisted his motivation as an MP was to help people, whether by fixing a “pothole in the road” or “trying to solve and get the country off of the grey list“.

Citing his successes as a minister in financial services and in social development, including updating welfare and older persons legislation, he said the next step was to make similar inroads on a wider variety of issues as a party.

“To be able now to do that and now to transition to a group of like-minded individuals who want to apply that same force to the community, and to be appointed as its leader unanimously is the honour of my life.

“I can’t wait to unveil to the country, a new vision to bring the community back together. We have to focus on more of what unites us than separates us.”