PNM reflects on legacy of Eddie Hart

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment has paid trib­ute to the life and pub­lic ser­vice of for­mer Tu­na­puna Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment Ed­ward “Ed­die” Hart, re­mem­ber­ing him as a com­mit­ted ad­vo­cate for com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment and youth em­pow­er­ment.

News of his pass­ing came this morn­ing, how­ev­er, the cir­cum­stances are not yet known.

In a state­ment the PNM de­scribed Hart’s life as one de­fined by re­silience, dis­ci­pline and ser­vice, point­ing to his rise from hum­ble be­gin­nings to na­tion­al lead­er­ship. Hart grew up in a chil­dren’s or­phan­age in Tacarigua and lat­er emerged as a promi­nent po­lit­i­cal and com­mu­ni­ty fig­ure, a jour­ney the PNM said re­flect­ed what could be achieved through hard work, faith and com­mit­ment to oth­ers. Cen­tral to his work was grass­roots de­vel­op­ment.

The par­ty said Hart found­ed the Hart Con­nec­tion, a com­mu­ni­ty-based or­gan­i­sa­tion aimed at up­lift­ing res­i­dents, and es­tab­lished the Ed­die Hart Foot­ball League, which sup­port­ed young peo­ple in the Tu­na­puna con­stituen­cy for more than 42 years. Youth de­vel­op­ment, the PNM said, re­mained a defin­ing fea­ture of his life’s work. Hart served in pub­lic of­fice for ap­prox­i­mate­ly 16 years, con­test­ing the Tu­na­puna con­stituen­cy five times and win­ning on four oc­ca­sions.

He rep­re­sent­ed Tu­na­puna in the 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th Re­pub­li­can Par­lia­ments and held posts in­clud­ing Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary and Min­is­ter of State in min­istries such as Health, Sport and Youth Af­fairs, Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Cul­ture, Gen­der Af­fairs and Tourism. The par­ty said he earned a rep­u­ta­tion for ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty, strong lead­er­ship and a peo­ple-cen­tred ap­proach.

In recog­ni­tion of his con­tri­bu­tion to par­ty and coun­try, Hart re­ceived the Dr Er­ic Williams Medal of Ho­n­our in Jan­u­ary 2019 at the PNM’s 63rd an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tions. In 2020, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go con­ferred on him an Hon­orary Doc­tor of Let­ters de­gree for his life­long ser­vice. The PNM said Hart’s lega­cy would con­tin­ue to in­spire gen­er­a­tions of young peo­ple across Trinidad and To­ba­go and said he em­bod­ied the na­tion­al mot­to, “To­geth­er we as­pire: To­geth­er we achieve. ”The par­ty ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly, friends, for­mer con­stituents and all whose lives he touched.