Craig Cannonier sees himself as an agent of change. The newly appointed Leader of the Official Opposition has a vision of a politics which is solution oriented and rancour free.“I think the language of parliament has to change. We’ve gone through a few elections of what I consider to be pure divisiveness. When you walk into the House of Assembly, it’s very evident that it’s geared toward this side bantering the other side,” he told The Royal Gazette this week.“You have a big aisle down the middle and you have the government and the opposition on the complete other side. I don’t think that is geared toward solution driven politics.”As leader of the Opposition One Bermuda Alliance, Mr Cannonier says he will lead a change in “the conversation”.“That is conciliatory in that if there is a good solution, I don’t care where it’s coming from. If it’s a good solution, then everyone must embrace it. What tends to happen is a good solution is put on the table and because our system is based on divisiveness, it leads us to defend power as opposed to empowering people. And that bothers me, because we must be about the business of the people. And if our people are hurting it’s because we’re not governing well.”Yet the OBA has a party whip, Shawn Crockwell, whose job it is to ensure that members toe the party line. Mr Cannonier says he’s not particularly fond of the party whip system and expects that the role of the OBA party whip will be different from the conventional.“An MP should have the respect of being able to stand on what he believes in without being ostracised because the rest of the group doesn’t quite feel the same way. And so the new government has to be one that embraces that diversity, that embraces the guy who says ‘Look, I’m not for’ whatever the question may be and not have to worry about whether the party whip is going to discipline him because he did not go with the party line,” Mr Cannonier said.“That is why we are called the Alliance. It’s not called the OBA party,” he said. “Now certainly there is power in agreement but that should not be at the detriment of someone who doesn’t a hundred percent agree.“That’s why Dale Butler said what he said ‘Hey look man, I was afraid for my job, I had to agree with this line.’ What a shame, that in 2011 we don’t have truly freedom of speech, in parliament. That’s crazy.”A recent MindMaps survey found that race was a factor in whether people were confident that the OBA is genuinely a fresh, new party. Mr Cannonier acknowledges the “challenge” of race in politics.“That is a challenge that we know we have. And that is a challenge that we must face and we must continue on a daily basis to let Bermuda know that this is not about colour. That this is about putting Bermuda first.”Asked how the challenge will be met, he said: “Our conversation has to change. And I don’t think that happens overnight for a great many people. Our conversation has to be about the interest of the people.“I’ll put it in these terms. If your interest is truly in people, it don’t matter if you’re black or white. If you can’t pay your rent, you can’t pay your rent. And so we need to be as a government setting pathways as a foundation for our people to realise their dreams regardless of their, quote, skin colour. Because it isn’t about someone’s skin colour it is about providing opportunities for people to excel. Now we can go down the historical background of race and say blacks were kept behind for various different reasons and rightfully so.“So, what the OBA is really about is ’listen we give equal opportunity to everyone and where there has been wrongs we must right them.’ What form and shape that takes, we need to discuss that as the One Bermuda Alliance. But we cannot move ourselves into a divisive form of politics whereby we’re taking from one and not creating for the other. Because we wind up back to where we were before basing everything we do on the colour of the skin.”He said the OBA’s approach was non racial. “The OBA is not approaching it from a racial standpoint. I was the one who said ‘UBP close your doors’. I was the one who said I would not get involved with the PLP or the UBP because they were steeped in racial divide. So the way forward for the OBA is we embrace everyone whether you are black or white.”He said: “We’re truly about charting a new way forward and that is empowering the people with information so that they can make good decisions. You can’t make a good decision if all you see is colour. You can’t make a good decision if all you see is money. It has to be based on the realities of where we are and the realities of where we are is we are a country in crisis. And that was before the recession. The shooting started long before the recession.”Attempts by the OBA’s political detractors to label the party as a rebranded UBP are laughable, according to Mr Cannonier.“I recognise that the PLP cannot exist without the UBP being around, so it is their goal to continue to try and label the OBA as something coming from the UBP because it makes life easier for them. And I laugh at that because it’s going to destroy them simple as that.”In making his appointments, Mr Cannonier said he never considered whether he would be giving former UBP figures too much of a public profile. “All of our MPs were told this is a new slate and we move from here,” he said.“And the only standard I have to go off of is the first day we met as the OBA, and so based on your work ethic, based on your performance, based on the passion that you’ve shown me, that’s where we will point you.”Asked how the OBA differs from the PLP, Mr Cannonier summed it up in three words: good governance, transparency and accountability. “I think that accountability and transparency has plagued this country. In order to stay in power, we keep people ill-informed and things are not transparent. And the OBA truly is about ensuring that the best way for accountability, the best way for good governance is that people are truly able to have an open view of how its government works.“We’ve seen the ills of that in our recent history within the last year the number of people who have pilfered from the taxpayer without any recourse. You go out on the street right now and the first thing that people are going to say is ‘I want my money back’.”Another major difference, Mr Cannonier said, is the OBA’s belief in tripartite consultation. “We need a collaborative effort which says that we are solution driven. A tripartite approach means that we will come together and put before the table those of interest the employers, the unions and government, and chart our way forward.“And that hasn’t happened because we are still leading a government of division as opposed to bringing people together.”