The Democratic National Alliance (DNA) revealed three new candidates last night in a town hall meeting held at the British Colonial Hilton.
Nicholas Jacques, Rodney Moncur and Allworth Merlin Pickstock were revealed as the candidates for Bain and Grants Town, St. Cecilia and Golden Gates, respectively.
Jacques is best known as a musician, performing with the likes of Heat Wave, Dry Bread and Smokey '007.  He was appointed president of the Bahamas Omnibus Union and served as president for nearly a decade.
He was very instrumental in lobbying for the government to erect sheltered bus stops throughout New Providence, as well as extended bus routes into remote areas of the island that were not serviced by public transportation.
Pickstock hails from Andros and made his living as a mechanic and later as a teacher at A.F. Adderly Junior High.  At the school, he founded the Hugh Campbell Basketball Tournament, which led to hundreds of students receiving basketball scholarships.
Moncur is renowned for his social activism, dating as far back as 1974 when he marched to Parliament with then member of Parliament Edmund Moxey.
During the 1980s he focused on education and led a march with students to protest the conditions of schools.  As a result, there was the implementation and amendment of the Education Act.
Later in his career he ran for Bain and Grants Town in the 2002 general election and lost.
Speaking at the meeting, Chris Mortimer, the DNA candidate for Sea Breeze, outlined the DNA's economic platform.
Mortimer said that the current challenges the economy is facing include high levels of unemployment and underemployment, a high cost of living, insufficient Bahamian ownership, the mismanagement of the national debt and the lack of accountability in government spending.
He listed the following industries as possible areas for economic expansion in The Bahamas: Energy solution industries, hi-tech manufacturing and assembly industries, motion picture and creative arts, agriculture husbandry and fisheries, science technology and medicine, banking and finance, law and cultural tourism.
He noted that tourism by itself will not solve the problems of The Bahamas, noting that the industry is "showing flat growth".
Charlene Paul, the DNA candidate for Elizabeth, echoed similar statements in her address last night.
"We will put the right people in the right jobs to get the job done!  This refers to Bahamian people, irrespective of party allegiance.  We want all Bahamians working together for the benefit of the entire Bahamas - we need each other, " she said.
Both candidates spoke to some extent on cultural tourism, saying, "We believe that our Bahamian culture is worthy of being captured, packaged and presented, first for our Bahamian populace to know and appreciate what it means to be Bahamian, then to the millions of tourists who visit our shores every year dying for a truly Bahamian experience."

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