And - in referring to her "chikilinks" - Panton makes an important differentiation. She does not have a personal fortune to draw from as her predecessor Shyne Barrow claimed to have, and as PUP Leader John Briceno's family certainly does have.
It takes hundreds of thousands dollars annually to run a political party machinery - and we asked her how she plans to do it. She said her integrity is her wealth:
Jules Vasquez:
"You are not a wealthy man. You are not a wealthy woman."
Tracy Panton, UDP Leader
"Well, it depends on how did you define wealth? Obviously you define wealth as have been liquid in terms of financial resources. I have a different definition of wealth. However, I will say this. The office of the opposition is a constitutional office. And as it happens in the rest of the region, in the Caribbean and Central America and many parts of the world, in the Commonwealth, the office of the leader of the opposition is paid for by the public purse, not by a wealthy businessman or two making provisions for that office. I have formally made an application to the office of the Prime Minister asking for that consideration. And jokingly he said to me, find your own money. That's the problem with our democracy, that every other constitutional officeholder in this country, has an office space, has a skeleton staff, have resources to conduct the affairs of that office, whether it's the integrity Commission, whether it's the office of the Ombudsman, whether it's the office of the contractor general, it should happen for the office of the leader of the opposition. Notwithstanding, I don't shoulder this responsibility alone, I certainly am the face. I'm the leader of the party. But, I have the support of many members of the business community who have traditionally and maybe not traditionally supported the United Democratic Party and other political organizations, including the People's United Party. If you listen to the naysayers and I beg say, Jules, you were one of them, I wouldn't have gotten this far because I am female. Two I don't come from a base of wealth, as you describe it. Many of the detractors felt I could not, I was not in a position to raise the kind of resources the party needs to get this far. And that certainly has proven to be not true. I will continue to work diligently. My integrity in the process is wealth, because those who are prepared to lend their support to the work I continue to do, do so because of my integrity. And they know that when they provide their support and resources to the United Democratic Party, under my leadership, the money is used as it is intended to be used."
