Edison James

Edison Chenfil James (born October 18, 1943, in Marigot) is a Dominican politician who was the prime minister of Dominica from June 14, 1995, to February 3, 2000, as well as the member of parliament for the Marigot constituency from 1990. He graduated from the Dominica Grammar School. He has a BSc degree in botany from the University of East London, a MSc degree in biochemistry from the University of Reading and a post graduate diploma in crop protection technology from Imperial College. He worked in a number of local and regional institutions including the Caribbean Development Bank, but it was as manager of the Dominica Banana Marketing Company that he rose to prominence on the island. He was instrumental in resuscitating the island's critical banana industry which had been decimated by Hurricane David. James has been active in regional cricket as an administrator and was the manager of the Windward Islands cricket team and the Combined Islands cricket team. He is a member of the Rotary Club. Career 1988–1999 In 1988, he headed a committee which founded the United Workers' Party and became its first political leader. From its inception, the party was assailed as a group of "disgruntled businessmen" or "greedy businessmen" as described by the established parties but, in 1990, the party won six seats in the 21 seat House of Assembly and James became the Leader of the Opposition. As leader of the opposition, he criticized the ruling Dominica Freedom Party for instituting an economic-citizen programme whereby persons could become citizens of the island for a fee. In the run-up to the 1995 elections, James accused the Eugenia Charles-led government of bugging his party's offices. A commission formed to investigate the matter concluded that the allegations were baseless. On June 12, 1995, elections he led the party to victory with 11 out of 21 seats with fewer votes than the incumbent Freedom Party and became prime minister. By then, the banana industry was no longer vibrant and so the James-led government embarked on an ambitious program of economic diversification. It passed legislation allowing the creation of off-shore business. In addition, it sought to allow an Australian mining company to conduct exploratory drilling on the island but that move was subsequently abandoned due to criticisms that it would sully the island's reputation as "The Nature Isle".