On April 6, the Consul General of Jamaica, Vivia Betton, invited Master Diana Cooper-Clark of the Atkinson Faculty of Liberal & Professional Studies and University Librarian Cynthia Archer to attend the book launch for The Challenges of Change: PJ Patterson Budget Presentations 1992-2002.
Right: Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson (left), Diana Cooper-Clark (centre) and Cynthia Archer (right)
The book launch took place at the Jamaican Canadian Centre in Toronto. At the launch, Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson personally presented a copy of the book to York University. Cooper-Clark and Archer accepted the book on behalf of the University.
Cooper-Clark was invited to the event because she works with and has close ties to the Jamaican community in Toronto and with the Consul General’s office.
The Challenges of Change: PJ Patterson Budget Presentations 1992-2002 brings together all of the annual budget presentations made by Patterson to the Jamaican parliament from 1992, when he became prime minister, to 2002. The presentations outline Patterson’s views and expectations on constitutional reform and his party’s ideological moorings on health care, education, infrastructural undertakings, regional and international developments. It provides a comprehensive insight into the vision and type of society Patterson is trying to create in Jamaica. In a time of economic difficulties for the island nation, he has pursued privatization and other free-market reforms.
This story was submitted to YFile by Diane Stadnicki, administrative assistant in the Atkinson office of the Master. The photograph was taken by Carolyn Goulbourne-Warren, Jamaica Information Service (JIS), of the Jamaican Consulate General’s office.