The mantra of Dr. Ewart Brown and his supporters since he launched his challenge for the leadership of the Progressive Labour Party is that he wants to take the Country to the next level. But those who have listened to both Dr. Brown’s initial announcement of the challenge and to his “vision statement” last Friday could be forgiven for not knowing just what the next level is.

Dr. Brown has a proven track record in both tourism and transport. He is media savvy, a master of the sound bite and a good communicator. He has spent a good deal of time explaining why he wants to be Premier. But he has yet to show where he wants to take the country. On education, he said last Friday that he would listen to teachers and students, promote sports as a way of getting ahead in life and celebrate high achievers. That’s all well and good, but a little thin for a system in crisis.

To his credit, Dr. Brown admitted he was not an economic expert, and said he would appoint a council of economic advisors from the private sector and Government. But there was no explanation, even in general terms, of how he saw the economy developing and changing in the context of economic empowerment, or anything else. Nor did he explain what effect an “Atlantis-style” resort development that he floated would have on the Island’s already full employment or the Island’s infrastructure.

What was more disturbing was that Dr. Brown seemed not to know what was proposed for the new hospital, an area one would expect him to be expert in as both a physician and as a Cabinet Minister who took part in the decision to build the new acute care hospital in the Botanical Gardens.

He said the debate should be on what the new hospital would be, not where it would be. That was a catchy sound bite, but when he went on to ask whether it made sense that a person in Sandys with a minor injury would have to go to Paget, he was seemingly unaware that that the Bermuda Hospitals Board’s own estates master plan envisioned satellite clinics in both the East and West Ends of the Island.

Similarly, when he asked if the new hospital would have facilities for the growing problem of diabetes and for cardiac care — the Island’s leading killer — the answer was yes, and again it was in the estates plan. On housing, Dr. Brown was disappointingly short of new ideas, rolling out the old chestnuts of rebuilding derelict homes and finding ways to convince landlords to rent out apartments that are currently vacant.

Every new Housing Minister has raised these ideas on their appointments, and every new Housing Minister has as quickly dropped them, presumably because of the legal complexities that surround the properties. Dr. Brown says he would gather the “best legal minds” to cut through the complexities, but what are people supposed to do until then?

On transport, a subject with which Dr. Brown is intimately aware, he proposes cutting congestion by limiting exempted companies that employ non-Bermudians to a fixed number of cars. This may be red meat for PLP delegates, but it would appear to be inordinately complicated in practice, open to abuse and could be the straw that breaks the camels back for international companies already complaining about the costs and red tape of operating in Bermuda.

Dr. Brown did deserve credit for saying he would put Independence on the back burner, seemingly recognising, as Premier Alex Scott has not, that it is simply not a priority for most Bermudians.

Mr. Scott has been criticised for failing to carry through on initiatives and for failing to address the problems that many Bermudians, notably black males, face. But Dr. Brown has not produced a more compelling vision, at least not yet.