Video: MP Terry Lister To Retire From Politics
[Updated with video + PLP & OBA response]
Paving the way for a by-election in Constituency #33, Independent MP Terry Lister — who has represented Sandys South since he was first elected in 1998 – has just announced that he will be retiring from politics.
Speaking at a press conference this morning [Sept 23], Mr. Lister said, “Today I wish to announce my retirement from Bermuda politics. I want you to note that I have not quit which is something you do soon after you start an activity and find it’s not for you.
“I have not resigned which is something you do when your timetable becomes cluttered and you are hard pressed to meet all your commitments. Retire is what you do after the involvement has run its course and has now come to an end.
“I have enjoyed working on behalf of the people of Bermuda in one form or another since returning to Bermuda in 1980. My career includes 17 years as a partner at Deloitte addressing the needs of local business in particular.
“I served my alma mater, the Berkeley Institute, for many years as chairman of the Berkeley Educational Society and chairman of the Berkeley Board of Governors. It was on my watch that we were successful in convincing the government to backtrack on its plan for one senior school and to have Berkeley be the second senior school.
“After serving in the Senate for five years, I became a Government Minister in 1998 and served in various Ministries during the years of the PLP Government. Over the past two years I have served as an Independent Member of the House and have enjoyed the role that I have been able to carve out.
Mr. Lister continued, “I believe my greatest accomplishment include the combining of the eastern fire services into one unit, the passage of CURE legislation, setting the course for the build out of Southside, establishing the mature students scholarships, providing opportunities for technical students to study abroad under the NTB, and tabling the Green Paper on Energy.
“I am now content to retire and to make it possible for another committed person to serve the people of Sandy’s South. This constituency has had fine gentlemen representing since the sixties and I have regarded it my personal responsibility at all times to do the best that I could for the constituency.
“This includes resurfacing the railway trail, installing a crossing at Maximart, speed bumps and lights where required. These are just some of the things that I have done over the years for the people of C33,” added Mr. Lister.
Update: 13-minute video of the full press conference
First appointed by the PLP to the Senate in 1993, Mr Lister has represented Constituency #33 Sandy’s South since he was first elected to Parliament in 1998.
Mr Lister put himself up for Party Leader twice in recent years, both times being defeated during internal PLP elections, first by Paula Cox and then by Marc Bean. In February 2013, Mr. Lister announced his resignation from the PLP, stating that he will sit in the House as an Independent.
The press conference is still underway as of this writing, and Mr. Lister is taking questions from the media. We will update with that video once the press conference is complete.
Update 11.16am: The press conference has just ended, and we will post the video as soon as possible. Mr. Lister spoke on the aspects surrounding a by-election, the potential third party concept and more.
Update 11.49am: Opposition Leader Marc Bean said, “On behalf of the Progressive Labour Party, we extend our best wishes to MP Terry Lister on his retirement from politics. Mr. Lister served Bermuda and the Progressive Labour Party well during his political career, in numerous capacities.
“Unfortunately, following the 2012 election, he chose to resign from the PLP and sit as an independent. We recognize his contribution to our country, and thank him for representing his community the past 16 years as a Member of Parliament. We wish him well in his retirement and future endeavors.”
In addition, Shadow Minister of Finance David Burt has just tweeted the below.
Update 12.20pm: When asked about the talk of a possible third party, Mr. Lister said “It was just that, talk. It didn’t amount to anything, unfortunately. Sadly, that alternative just did not come to fruition.”
When asked would there be a by-election, Mr Lister said, “Yes, the Premier will have to take the responsibility of meeting with the Governor, setting a date, and calling a by-election.”
Update 2.33pm: OBA Chair Senator Lynne Woolridge said, “Mr Lister has had a long and distinguished career in politics. His departure from the Progressive Labour Party’s ranks so that he could serve as an independent Member of Parliament demonstrated he was an MP who had the courage of his convictions. The One Bermuda Alliance joins with all of his colleagues in the Legislature in wishing him well in his retirement.”
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Guess he got disillusioned with his previous musings about spearheading a third party or other movement, and is content to serve out his time.
Pity, because it had merit, and he’s still capable of contributing ideas.
Thanks Mr. Lister for all the years of service to Bermuda. You have made a valuable contribution to your community and will always be someone we can reflect upon. Wishing you all the best. your future endeavors! Well done you good and faithful Servant of God!
I agree with you BettyTrump ,He has made a valuable contribution to his community and Bermuda.
His wife wore red for OBA?
Something smells fishy
It sure does. The PLP are after his seat. Remember EB’s Labour Day speech? This is part of ALL that.
Maybe he was paid a lot of $ to either rejoin the party or walk away? EB has deep pockets and is itching to get back
Naaaaaaah – I don’t think it’s its anything Fishy here’ -I just think Mr Lister feels he’s had his day.- but thats not to
say that there won’t be Politricks used somewhere the the midst of this – just not from Mr.Lister.
I always found him a straight up,and to the point ,Honest MP.
Shame. He was the only guy in the PLP with any financial sense and the courage to even make a peep about it.
It’s a damn shame. He is one of the few with some integrity in either party. All the good ones get marginalised and Lister has been no exception. He was the only one to speak up about the debt when it was still early enough to do something about it, but it fell on deaf ears. Now the PLP claim that the global economy put us in this situation. We and Terry Lister know different.
It’s a damn shame.
about time
Wow! I agree that he still had something to contribute to Bermuda. Best wishes to him. Who knows, maybe he’ll pull a Jordan and come out if needed before the next election.
I hope the OBA in the upcoming by election … put Ray Charlton as their candidate, he is a fantastic guy.
remember ray and trevor turned off the water in dockyard
beware of the paid bloggers..
We’re already well aware of you, Rhonda, but thank you for the reminder.
Hahaha, too funny.
Do you even know what a blogger is? It doesn’t seem like you do. Bloggers have their own websites, called, wait for it, BLOGS. It wouldn’t be in their interest to waste their time commenting on a different newsite like this.
Co-signed. People here are for the most part forum/discussion board commentators.
Maybe people feel more important to be called ‘bloggers’. Or it’s fewer syllables to use.
Yeah, which party was it that had paid American consultants pretending to be young Bermudians?
Which one had a sitting government Senator making racist anonymous comments online?
PLP had/has paid commentators, now OBA has paid commentators. Everybody’s getting paid… except regular folk.
And aint that the truth!
How do you get one of these ‘paid commentator’ jobs?
Maybe ‘Bud’ can come on and let us know? He pioneered the idea.
I dunno. Guess it starts from being a party insider
@ Rhonda,
LOL. You’re including yourself in that right???
Good for you MP Lister a good innings and knowing when to call it a day.
Hopefully OBA or Sir John have lined by a good golden parachute gig for you
MP Lister wil be missed for his ability to add clarity on almost any subject or debate. He is also recognised as a very knowledgeable businessman.
Let’s hope Bermuda has not seen the last of him as a public servant.
On a political note, it will be interesting to see which candidates are nominated from each side and the subsequent victor.
To be fair, that seat’s been a bit of a PLP lock for a long time, so the victor isn’t really in doubt come 2017 or whenever.
A good spot for Mark Daniels! Go PLP!!!
not yet
BY ELECTION! GET YOU POPCORN READY!!
………….Intro…………time for the return of Former Premier Paula Cox she would make a good candidate to replace MP Lister since her family is originally from Somerset
Oh we forgot she just sold the family homestead in Somerset, oh no!
Wow,
As a PLP member, Lister’s financial intelligence and competency was called into question. His accomplishments in the business world were diminished, his credentials were disregarded and his overall intellect was considered suspect.
As an independent, he somehow regained his intelligence and financial savvy. He regained his statue as an esteemed professional and businessman.
Now, upon retirement, he will be missed as he was a valuable contributor to Bermuda as a whole
It seems when you are with the PLP, you do not have intelligence. When you leave, you somehow automatically gain intelligence.
“As a PLP member, Lister’s financial intelligence and competency was called into question. His accomplishments in the business world were diminished, his credentials were disregarded and his overall intellect was considered suspect.”
Please enlighten us, or is this something you made up in your head again? As far as i am concerned, he is one of the few PLP MPs who had credibility in my books!
To hell with your books, he left because he is a whining baby !!
WOW, he left the PLP because of people like you Robert.
People with no substance, just base rhetoric and no will or ability to move the country forward.
The only people that denigrated Terry Lister, while in the PLP, was his owm PLP cohorts. The only people that questioned his financial intellgience and competency was his own Party. If not then why didn’t they appoint him as their Min. of Finance as opposed to a lawyer?
They fired him for sticking up to Dr. Brown and his undemocratic actions and then ridiculed him when he sought leadership of the Party twice.
Then most recently your current leader rumor mongered and attempted to denigrate his reputation during a session of the House with his 16 year oldesque ‘what if’ questions. How soon we forget huh?
I was dismayed by Mr. Lister’s treatment by his own Party. I was sad because he was the last of the PLP moderates and with his ousting only the extremists now exist in the Party.
So stop with the PLP victim card, because the denigration of Mr. Lister flowed straight from the PLP themselves and no one else.
Much like how Dale Butler and Jonathan Smith (i.e. moderates) were treated and ultimately discarded. No room for these centrists in the Party anymore.
Either way thank you Mr. Lister for your contribution to the political scene and wish you the best going forward.
Dale Butler and Jonathan Smith were not discarded in any way. And neither was Terry.
How soon you forget
I expect that when you’re in the PLP you have to endure an inundating flood of nonsense coupled with dramatic contradictions between ideals and behaviour and that it probably does have a seriously negative effect on your cognitive abilities.
He knew the PLP sold out Bermudians!
Unfortunately this leaves the PLP with David Burt as Finance Minister and that has to be one of the scariest things I can think of. What other alternatives do they have now? Zane? Marc? Wayne?….SMH
What’s the OBA majority – 18 to 16? This will probably make it 18-17. Lot’s resting on Randy ….
19-15.
19-17.
Do you think? Mid-term elections nearly always go the way of the Opposition and this is held by the PLP (Terry was elected as a PLP MP and then went indy.)
18/36 is by definition not a majority. Do some googling: the OBA won 19 seats at the last election. That number hasn’t changed. The PLP won 17, which was subsequently reduced to 15. In all probability, it will soon rise to 16.
Apologies – it was 19-17 with Randy going as speaker and Terry as indy, made it 19 15… my fault
Imagine this situation:
If Randy quits Speakership and goes back to being a PLP MP, it would become 19-17 again. Randy being Speaker is a “gift” to OBA from a purely political numbers sense. With an OBA MP being moved to Speaker, it would become 18-17.
Precarious majority that would be for the OBA….imagine one OBA MP moving across the aisle and that would be 17-18 but a technical 18-18 due to the Speaker being an OBA MP.
What happens then constitutionally, I wonder???
He cannot go back. He has to retire.
Makes you wonder if the PLP paid him big $ to bow out?
Randy is OBA, no doult about it.
2012 General Election Results 33 Sandys South:
LISTER, TERRY EUGENE
Progressive Labour Party
Winner
VOTES 516
VOTE% 56.52%
SPRING, TONETTA
One Bermuda Alliance
VOTES 397
VOTE% 43.48%
Enjoy your pension Sir…..you’re one of a few that actually deserve it.
A real shame. Who in the PLP is there left with private sector financial experience?
David Burt doesn’t count. He has a B.S. in Finance and that’s it. Where has he worked in the private sector? What experience does he have?
I shudder at the thought of him as Minister.
I thought he had a BS in IT not finance?
Sorry but Burt with a BS in anything is still way underqualified
By under qualified I mean lack of experience in the private finance sector
Just as an FYI
Speaker Horton is still a PLP MP
So the numbers are presently 19 16 1
Thank U Terry for Your Contributions to Constituency 33, Sandys Parish, The PLP & Bermuda. Best of Health & hope U keep giving to Bermuda.
This is very sad day for Bermuda. I pray that the “bloggers” and the radio talk show hosts will be able to put aside their peeves and give Mr. Lister the respect he do deserves. He has done an excellent job for Bermuda.
My neighbourhood is stunned at the news. We had decided from the moment Mr. Lister went I dependent we would still vote for him if he chose to run again. He has served Constituency 33 very well. Well done Sir. Well done. We will welcome you back any day.
The OBA can win Sandys South.
Think about it,who would vote for the PLP rep. If it gave a chance of another PLP govt?
Charlton came very very close to scalping Mikey Scott….nobody is safe!
The PLP will walk this safe seat. Might as well just give it to them now, save the time and cost.
Far less safe than the seat won by Glen Smith!
This is not a competition for a political office by any state of the imagination.
It is about the Voters of Sandy’s parish being charged with Voting for that person with ability and conviction,being well qualified to perform the enormousness responsibility at hand.
The best person for the job.
Each party has an obligation to introduce that person in who all the Voters of Sandy’s parish can believe and trust in, and can and will fulfill the expectations of the Nation.
By my choosing, I would sent the whole country back to the poles.
Never has this task been so important.
One helleva good reason to love Terry Lister . And I take it from ol’Kenny Rogers ; He Said, “If you’re gonna play the game, boy, you gotta learn to play it right”
You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em
Know when to walk away and know when to run
You never count your money when you’re sittin’ at the table
There’ll be time enough for countin’ when the dealing’s done
Every gambler knows that the secret to survivin’
Is knowin’ what to throw away and knowing what to keep
‘Cause every hand’s a winner and every hand’s a loser
And the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep
Terry I wish you and your lovely wife Eudora well in all your future endeavors ……Coffee
Coffee , you are Chris F. aren’t you !
I was saddened to hear Terry Lister is retiring from politics. This is a big loss to Bermuda because Terry Lister is that rare man who not only has talent, intelligence and integrity, but also has that strong sense of social commitment that compels him to step in the political area.
Let’s hope the Honourable Mr. Lister’s years of selfless service to his country provides an impetus to other talented Bermudians to follow in his footsteps.
The sun sets on all political careers and no matter how fine your finale speeches may sound to some; History will be the ultimate judge.
On many of the big issues – especially government finances – history has sadly already proven Mr. Lister correct.
@Alvin Williams. Good Morning Mr. Post Office 101. You are absolutely right. History will show the value of the contribution of the Honourable Member to BERMUDA’s well being.
Why do some people find it so hard to give jack his jacket. When will we learn that despite our differences there comes a time to let go and give credit where credit is due. Sarcasm is not needed in this case. Your illustrious leader dug deep and was able to rise to the occassion. You can too – but then again maybe not. How much can one expect from a guy who continuously failed Post Office 101?????????????
Ya boi is trying some propaganda! Lister check u in de next election!!!
Two words for you Lister: good riddance.
No seat is safe on both sides of the aisle if the people have had enough.
Did you do your very best for a better Bermuda, may be you can tell us how the country got in the mess we are in and why.
We thought you would know that mortgaging the country would be our ultimate down fall, the money lender now owns us “lock stock and barrel”.
People with out work have a problem putting food on the table. We have no money to pay taxes and service the debt for a Concrete Empire.
The Government needs to re – invent its self, because the old ways of Tax and Spend along with many unreasonable unworkable policies have failed.
Government is big business,not a taxing “double dip” charity.
DOUBLE DIP
Eg I buy a car .
I pay import duty.
I pay the highest road tax on the planet to use it.
I may have a Job if I am lucky.
I pay employment payroll tax.
I pay Duty on food from the remaining income.
Time to draw up a job description and academic qualifications for parliamentary candidates.
We the voters are responsible for running a country, we our charged with the responsibility in selecting the best person for the job.