Missed Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young's first speech? Here is the full text of what he had to say.

My fel­low cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go, 

It is tru­ly an ho­n­our to stand here to­day, not just as Prime Min­is­ter of this great na­tion, but at a piv­otal mo­ment where our Na­tion’s rich di­ver­si­ty of­fers us a pow­er­ful way for­ward – a ‘New Chap­ter’ for Trinidad and To­ba­go. 

I be­lieve in Trinidad and To­ba­go and I be­lieve in us, as a peo­ple. 

As I speak, our Chris­t­ian broth­ers and sis­ters are ob­serv­ing Lent… Our Mus­lim broth­ers and sis­ters are en­gaged in the holy month of Ra­madan… Our Hin­du broth­ers and sis­ters have just cel­e­brat­ed Phag­wa, and will soon be en­ter­ing the sa­cred pe­ri­od of Navra­tri – all while we pre­pare to com­mem­o­rate Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Lib­er­a­tion Day and Eid-ul-Fitr with our re­spec­tive broth­ers and sis­ters. 

These sa­cred re­li­gious ob­ser­vances fol­low the spec­tac­u­lar ex­pres­sion of our unique cul­ture, cre­ativ­i­ty, re­silience, and his­to­ry that is Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Car­ni­val. 

Nowhere else in the world ex­ists such a pro­found and dy­nam­ic blend of cul­tur­al and re­li­gious di­ver­si­ty… that not on­ly co­ex­ists, but thrives, shapes and strength­ens our col­lec­tive na­tion­al iden­ti­ty. 

It is this very foun­da­tion –  our na­tion­al uni­ty –  built on re­spect, in­clu­sion, and shared pur­pose – along with our fight­ing spir­it –  that I be­lieve holds the pow­er to pro­pel our Na­tion for­ward. 

It is al­so the very foun­da­tion that shaped a boy born on Up­per Hen­ry Street in Port of Spain in­to the per­son who stands be­fore you to­day as Prime Min­is­ter. 

My par­ents, Richard and Prescil­la Young, taught me to al­ways work hard, serve oth­ers, and to take on in­jus­tices when I had the pow­er to make a dif­fer­ence. That’s why I stud­ied law and served the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go. Whether fight­ing cor­rup­tion or pow­er­ful cor­po­ra­tions on be­half of work­ers, like the steel­work­ers, fight­ing for the many unions I rep­re­sent­ed, or fight­ing for the dig­ni­ty of com­mu­ni­ties like McK­ai in my con­stituen­cy who lacked ba­sic ameni­ties like clean run­ning wa­ter when I first took of­fice, or ne­go­ti­at­ing on our Na­tion’s be­half against those who would jeop­ar­dize our en­er­gy rev­enue, or work­ing tire­less­ly to keep all of our cit­i­zens safe and se­cure with­out jeop­ar­diz­ing our eco­nom­ic fu­ture dur­ing the dark­est days of the pan­dem­ic, it has been my life’s work to fight for the peo­ple of this Na­tion.  And at every step, I have born wit­ness to what we can achieve when we fight to­geth­er. 

The chal­lenges of the past have test­ed our re­silience, but they have al­so re­vealed the depth of our strength, pur­pose, and our fight­ing spir­it.  The fights be­fore us de­mand uni­ty, col­lab­o­ra­tion, and de­ci­sive ac­tion.  Trinidad and To­ba­go’s great­ness rests not on­ly in the hands of any one leader or gov­ern­ment, but lies in the hands, hearts, and minds of each and every cit­i­zen, as they are em­pow­ered to equal­ly con­tribute and ben­e­fit in this place we call our home.   

As we be­gin this new chap­ter to­geth­er, this is my com­mit­ment to you, I will lead with in­tegri­ty, in­clu­sion, and ac­count­abil­i­ty.  We will har­ness our unique strengths, di­ver­si­ty, and as­pi­ra­tions to build a fu­ture where every cit­i­zen has the op­por­tu­ni­ty to thrive. We will put aside dif­fer­ences, lever­age our col­lec­tive ex­pe­ri­ences and ex­per­tise, and cham­pi­on the nec­es­sary re­forms to trans­form and strength­en our Na­tion and up­lift all our peo­ple.  I will work to­geth­er with you, across Trinidad and To­ba­go, with each and every cit­i­zen, on the way for­ward. 

Our work be­gins right now. I will work tire­less­ly, with each and every sin­gle cit­i­zen who wants to be a part of this jour­ney, to cre­ate a safer, stronger, and pros­per­ous Trinidad and To­ba­go.  To take on crime so that every­one feels safe and se­cure in their own neigh­bour­hoods. To fu­el our in­no­va­tion, cre­ativ­i­ty, and cul­ture to dri­ve eco­nom­ic trans­for­ma­tion where every sin­gle cit­i­zen can chart their own des­tiny.  To en­sure that young peo­ple have a seat at the ta­ble to shape the fu­ture that they will in­her­it.  A fu­ture where no dream is too big. A fu­ture with more ‘well pay­ing jobs’, a more af­ford­able life, and a more pros­per­ous Trinidad and To­ba­go for gen­er­a­tions to come. It will not be an easy jour­ney but it is one that work­ing to­geth­er we will be able to achieve these goals. 

We have built a strong and sol­id foun­da­tion on which to stand, and to­geth­er, we to­geth­er, we can go even fur­ther.  To­geth­er, we be­gin to write a ‘New Chap­ter’. 

To­geth­er we can and will move for­ward.  To­geth­er, we can tru­ly take hold of our des­tiny.  To­geth­er, we can achieve all that we need to cre­ate the fu­ture we all de­serve. 

I take this op­por­tu­ni­ty to thank Dr Kei­th Row­ley and his fam­i­ly for ALL that he has done for Trinidad and To­ba­go. We are grate­ful. 

[Lat­er to­day I in­vite you to join me at 3:00 pm as we swear in the new cab­i­net of Trinidad and To­ba­go.] 

Fel­low cit­i­zens, I look for­ward to work­ing with you all, to­geth­er.  May God bless you all, and may God bless the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go.