Like others of his generation, Walter Lister is set to leave parliament fulfilled, but with a nagging disappointment - not in his party but in Bermuda’s failure to opt for national sovereignty after all these years.He had had no hesitation in joining the Progressive Labour Party in 1966, shortly after the party had made its views known at the Constitutional Conference which kicked off Bermuda’s modern political system.“If someone had told me that some 40 years or so later Bermuda would still be a colony of Great Britain, I would have laughed and said that’s not true. But here we are, unfortunately.”With an electrician father, he fully identified with the labour movement and subscribed to the PLP’s philosophy.By 1972, when he made his first run for election to the House of Assembly, he had already served his party as Public Relations Officer and then Deputy Chairman.He did not succeed in the 1972 contest for the then dual seat constituency of Sandys North, but did make it in his second bid in 1976, just eight years after Bermuda had implemented universal adult suffrage.Mr Lister, who will not be running for re-election remembers his first day in parliament “like it was yesterday”. “Dame Lois Browne Evans, who I came in under wore a white dress with a red print and a turban and all the new members in her midst gathered around her,” he said.Trouble started almost as soon as he entered parliament. One of Mr Lister’s earliest memories of his time as an MP was having to leave the House to talk to people on Court Street who were incensed about the state of the country. That was in late 1977. Two young men - Buck Burrows and Larry Tacklyn - had been sent to the gallows in what many in the black community believed were unjust executions.“We talked to the leaders of the groups there, and tried to find answers,” said Mr Lister. “Even though they seemed disorganised there was always someone who surfaced as a leader.”The efforts of that small group of PLP leaders did nothing to stop the riots which broke out later that day. But that didn’t deter them from heading back into town that evening in another attempt to broker the peace.The rest of his career was a little less dramatic. But he has seen major historical milestones in his 35 years as an MP. For one thing, black people were a minority in the legislature when he entered the House. Today they are the overwhelming majority.“We just take it for granted it was always this way,” mused Mr Lister. “It wasn’t always this way. Bermuda’s electoral system improved during the period, from unequal representation in a dual seat parish based system where you had to be at least 21 years old to vote, to a single seat system where each vote is of equal value. The PLP pushed for, and got, reforms that gave 18-year olds the right to vote - something that Mr Lister is particularly proud of.Throughout much of Mr Lister’s tenure the three-year residential vote - which allowed some non Bermudians to vote - was in full swing. That’s no longer the case, thanks to his party’s efforts.For all his years in Parliament, Mr Lister has had no substantive Cabinet posting, although he did serve briefly as a Minister without Portfolio - an experience he found “interesting” but not one he wanted to repeat.“When you are in Cabinet, you sign a pledge to respect the position of Cabinet,” he said. “That wasn’t always possible so I just thought that I would be better off not serving in Cabinet.”He has, however, done two stints as Chairman of the West End Development Corporation (Wedco), which he finds challenging, enjoyable and not a little ironic.“My grandfather came (to Bermuda) in 1902 and worked in Dockyard. But because he was a black man, he got a very menial job,” Mr Lister said.“In 2002, 100 years later, I came on board as Chairman of the Corporation.”“I think my greatest success has been on the local level,” Mr Lister says. “I enjoy that kind of politics. I enjoy the one to one with people, although I’ve had the opportunity to represent Bermuda in a number of international forums over the years.”Bermuda’s colonial status was a key topic of discussion at his first international conference - a 1977 meeting of the Caribbean Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in Barbados.An ardent supporter of Independence for Bermuda, the trip to Barbados had another special significance for Mr Lister. His grandfather had come to Bermuda from St Kitts, and his arrival in Barbados was the first time a member of the family had returned to the Caribbean. Mr Lister had great difficulty explaining why Bermuda remained a colony when most of the Caribbean nations had jumped at the opportunity for sovereignty.Thirty-five years later, he still does.“We as a people wanting someone 3,000 miles away telling us what to do just doesn’t seem right in my eyes because I believe in myself and I believe in the people of Bermuda. And there are so many positive examples of countries that went independent,” he told The Royal Gazette.He added that he does feel a certain amount of embarrassment “even to this day”. And he believes that Britain is now hoping to hang on to its colonies, a far cry from the days when Whitehall was diplomatically encouraging them to independence.“An intelligent people like Bermudians cowtowing to Britain just doesn’t make sense. What is it that people are afraid of when there have been so many positive examples? Oftentimes, people look at places that are failures, but there are so many positive examples. I’m at a loss, I really have no idea.”Now the veteran MP is leaving the political stage. Only House Speaker Stanley Lowe, who is also retiring, has served longer than Mr Lister.“The time has come that I must go,” he says simply.