The Progressive Labour Party’s candidate for Smith’s South hopes to influence his party to consider creating a way for non-Bermudian residents invested in the community to gain status.

Mischa Fubler, who will run against Ben Smith in the One Bermuda Alliance stronghold on October 5, said he believed being embedded in island life should be a “key component” for eligibility rather than length of stay.

Speaking to The Royal Gazette on nomination day at St Patrick’s Church yesterday, Mr Fubler said: “Because of our size and the economic disparity between locals and expatriates, competing financially for real estate is something I have heard from voters as a concern.

“Expatriates are typically paid more to relocate and there are other accommodations made in their remuneration. I feel if someone is more embedded in the community they will carry that understanding with them into becoming a citizen.

“The party stance is that the PLP is willing to engage in a bipartisan reform of immigration primarily because whatever is agreed upon from all the stakeholders, the people who are looking for status have confidence that the policy persists beyond the next government.

“I am glad to see that they [the PLP] are being more explicit in the need to address immigration and I hope that by bringing my personal belief to what is agreed upon in the party I can shift that in the direction that I mentioned.”

Mr Fubler, an information technology specialist, said most of the issues raised by constituents so far pertained to the country as a whole, an observation shared by Mr Smith.

Increasing the population to help boost the economy is one of the top priorities for Mr Smith.

He said: “The PLP government spent so much time speaking against immigration and now they have come to the realisation that as the population is shrinking ― you have an ageing population, a negative birthrate and emigration ― as the group that is paying into the system shrinks, you have to grow it.

“Every day another person decides to get on a plane and leave the country for ever. We will develop hope and optimism in this country so that people want to stay here, flourish and build their families here.”

Mr Smith said the entire community must be part of the change needed. He added that education and healthcare were the two other main issues raised at the doorstep.

Speaking on education, Mr Smith said: “We need to fix the curriculum and support our teachers so that our students can perform now, not ten years from now.

“The OBA is going to be the Government and the only way we can do that is to make sure that we let the entire community know we are coming, and we are coming with change.”

Mr Fubler, who has described himself as “a proud product of our public education system”, is the father of a child attending Purvis Primary School, which was not fully ready to open at the start of this academic year.

He said: “I was disappointed but I was relieved that when I showed up on the Sunday afternoon I was able to ask questions of the principal, the PTA president and staff who made the best of an undesirable situation.

“There is definitely room for improvement. Reform is needed and I would like to aid in the efforts to improve the transformation. I think the biggest gap is proactive communication and I would like to see more of that from the people who are leading it.”

On a constituency level, Mr Fubler, who attended the protest on Kindley Field Road on Tuesday primarily to hear the concerns of farmers, spoke of his desire to introduce a farmer’s market at Spittal Pond.

He said: “I thought it would be a good opportunity to improve the environment, provide greater access to local fruit and vegetables and spur some of the smaller farmers who don’t have access to larger channels like grocery stores and restaurants.”

He added that he would like the Government to help co-ordinate an initiative whereby industrial entities in the area, including on Lolly’s Well Road, could help residents maintain the private roadways.

Both candidates spoke of the need to improve the state of the public roads.

Earlier this month, Mr Smith said he would not rule out making a bid to lead the OBA but said he would do so only at the request of his team.

The by-election was called after the retirement of veteran OBA MP and party leader Cole Simons last month.

Mr Simons held the seat for 25 years and secured a comfortable majority at the last General Election, seeing off the PLP’s Owen Darrell by 547 votes to 318.