Chevonne Stewart is ULP’s new candidate for Southern Grenadines

Chevonne Stewart was formally introduced last Sunday, June 8, 2025, as the person the Unity Labour Party (ULP) intends to be its candidate for the Southern Grenadines Constituency in the upcoming general election.

Stewart, the Chief Radiographer at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, used the opening lines of her speech to “formally introduce” herself as she charged that the media had been trying, but had been doing “a horrible job” of saying who she is.

Those opening comments were made during Stewart’s maiden speech following her acceptance as the ULP candidate for the constituency at the ULP Southern Grenadines Constituency Conference and Candidate Selection forum which was held at the Union Island Secondary School.

She established that she is the daughter of two well-known Grenadines men- Hugh Stewart from Union Island, and Gussie De Roche of Canouan. Given that her biological father is a ‘Unionite’, she spent a lot of her former years on Union Island.

“I remember the long trips on the vessel,” she said, referring to the roll-on-roll-off vessels that made the trips back then between Kingstown and the Southern Grenadines.

Stewart pointed out that she and her sister used to be awakened by their grandmother at 2:00 a.m to get to Clifton to catch the boat to travel back to St Vincent.

She spoke of her days attending the Seventh-day Adventist Bible school programme, and the duets she and her sister sang at the church.

“I remember the days of shelling peas on the porch, the grinding of the corn,” the ULP hopeful said, and listed the local dishes in which corn is a major ingredient.

“Actually, my most treasured memories of my grandfather, Solomon Stewart, always being on a porch and telling my sister, my cousins and I, ‘Alyo stop talk and shell the peas’.”

As a teenager, Stewart entered the Miss Easterval Pageant, where Cassian Pope edged her out by a single point.

“In those days, it wasn’t the Easterval Committee. It was OSDA. I have been here…, the one place that I have always considered my roots is Union Island,” she declared, maybe subtle reference to persons mainly on social media who questioned her loyalty to the area, suggesting preference for a male named candidate instead.

“ My second dad that I spoke about, who is from Canouan and my mom have a ferry that runs the Southern Grenadines, so, the Southern Grenadines has always been a part of my life,” Stewart affirmed, as she also explained her decision to enter elective politics.

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