There’s a famous scene at the end of the movie “The Candidate” starring Robert Redford as a young anti-establishment candidate running for the US Senate. Having successfully unseated the long-time incumbent and given up some of his ideals in the process, Redford’s character asks his campaign advisor: “What do we do now?”

It is possible that the same thought will be running through Dr. Ewart Brown’s mind now. He has achieved his lifelong dream of achieving the Premiership, and has done so by promising to take both his party and the Bermuda to the next level.

And he has done so without really revealing, at least to the general public, what that is.

To be sure, his speech on Friday night helped to show some of the way. There are promises to move quickly on child development, on poverty, crime, the hospital and drug abuse.

But none of these actions have been made clear in any real detail, and Dr. Brown and his Cabinet Ministers, who are likely to be announced today, will need to move quickly to explain just what the next level is.

Dr. Brown was also clearly critical of the internal governance of the Progressive Labour Party and was clearly stung by some of the criticisms he endured last week. So his message to Dame Lois Browne Evans and others was clear: thanks for your lifetime of commitment. Now get out of the way.

How Dr. Brown goes about reshaping the PLP and forging it for the next election will be interesting and it may be difficult for him to merge all the talk of inclusion and the need for party members to be “free to challenge” and “free to choose” with the need for discipline. He will no doubt be sorely tempted to sweep the old guard out and replace them with his supporters, but should be aware of the risks that are inherent with that.

It is self-evident that the PLP needs reform. Its method of selecting its leader alone is secretive. The public still has no idea who actually chose Dr. Brown, or how they were selected. Nor do we know what Former Premier Alex Scott told the delegates in his final speech because the general public and the media were reduced to trying to peek through windows from outside the Devonshire Recreation Club. No modern party conducts its affairs this way and damages Dr. Brown’s legitimacy.

It is also true that the United Bermuda Party, although only its elected MPs select a leader, shouldo go through its selection process in public rather than behind closed doors.

So both parties should take the opportunity to reform and open up the process, and in this instance Dr. Brown should avoid the temptation to simply take over the mechanism and use it to his own advantage.

How Dr. Brown shapes his Cabinet will also be instructive. Will he be a healer, or will he now take advantage of the opportunity — and there will never a better one — to sweep those who have blocked him in the past out of the way and to reward his own supporters?

Again, the temptation will be to do the latter. But a person intent on healing and bringing the whole community together will opt for inclusion, and not for the settling of scores.

Dr. Brown now moves from being the leader of a faction to the leader of a Country. It carries different responsibilities with it, and a need to speak for all of Bermuda.

Dr. Brown has shown his strengths in this leadership campaign. He is a hard worker, a good organiser, a first class communicator and he has the ability to inspire people to reach for the stars. He will need all those skills and more as he now heals his party and earns the right to lead the Country.