Self-styled “political agnostic” Corin Smith will run for the Opposition United Bermuda Party in the Sandys North by-election.

Mr. Smith, 36, has been a member of the Progressive Labour Party and was a key architect of a protest vote movement during last year's general election which nearly cost then Premier Jennifer Smith her seat in parliament, but also dented the chances of UBP candidate Kenneth Bascome.

Yesterday, however, the lawyer was lauded as representative of the UBP's “fresh and new approach” toward transforming itself.

Mr. Smith credited party Leader Grant Gibbons with his decision to join the party, and sees his involvement as an opportunity to be an agent of change.

“The UBP right now is at its most vulnerable point in its history,” he said. “It has lost two successive elections against an adversary that is not necessarily that better organised…

“The PLP is in an ascendant position which makes for a very exciting time for political activism.”

Now is the time to abandon agnosticism and embrace “constructive interventionism”, he said. “I would take myself off the agnostic camp and call myself an interventionist.

“I describe interventionist as helping people help themselves as opposed to the paternalistic thing where you help people who you think cannot help themselves. “I think the closed hierarchical system is based on the premise that people are too dumb to help themselves and other people have to make decisions for them.”

He is also impressed by what he says is the party's willingness to deal with “unfinished business” between the races.

And, said Mr. Smith: “There is an urgent need for black intellectual capital in public life generally, but in the legislature specifically. And I'm coming to the table with no axe to grind other than to build grassroots engagement from the ground up.”

Sandys North's main issue is voter apathy, he said, and there is a need to “build bridges and fix fences” in the district with the lowest voter turnout in last year's General Election.

“That apathy is typically within the under 35 demographic, so I come to challenge that apathy and create a sense of what I call collective efficacy.”

He said that overtures from the UBP came after his involvement in forming the Gombey Liberation Party, headed up by his brother Gavin Smith. “The bottom line is that Grant is interested in being seen to reach out to the black community and I guess Gavin was a vocal advocate of that and it provided the pretext for him to reach out to us,” he said.

But he said he had fully expected the PLP to make overtures - which they did not - because the GLP campaign helped the PLP more than the Opposition.

“I would have described myself as a political agnostic - I had given up on both the PLP and the UBP, what I described as closed political systems,” he said.

“I would not have participated in dialogue with Alex Scott or Grant Gibbons as leaders of closed political systems.”

Mr. Smith said he believes that now is the time for constructive engagement. “As I got to know Grant better, I began to think of him less as a ‘Gibbons man' and more as a person.

“He came across to me as very sincere with his concerns about race relations. Grant's unique persona is one of open inquiry and he does bring a certain academic approach.”

The prospect of his candidacy came about when it emerged that there was a “real gap within the UBP” when it came to contesting the seat made vacant by the death of Eugene Cox.

Mr. Smith added that he was impressed with a UBP platform proposal to memorialise the slave trade - a project he has been working on for sometime. He said that the people of Sandys North deserve a corporate body, much like St. George's and Hamilton. A supporter of Independence, Mr. Smith said he was “scarred” for life politically over the 1995 referendum on whether Bermuda should go independent.

“I couldn't believe that an issue so integral to Bermuda's political future would be scandalised by personality conflict. But I'm adamantly pro-independence, but I have learned the lesson of history that independence in reality is completely different from independence in theory - meaning that the people have to work together for independence to be suitable.

“So I've focused in my agnostic life to be as solution driven as possible and not ideologically driven.”

He said the party had accepted that the issue of Independence had to be dealt with. “Within the UBP I speak my truth and I represent my truth and build my constituency from the ground up and I leave it to the party machinery to either embrace it or reject it.

“But from the beginning of my dialogue with them, I've said that national interests will override party differences or partisan ideologies and Independence is an issue that cannot be avoided. It has to be managed. And that's been accepted as a starting point for my membership and my candidacy.”

He said that since both parties had “dropped the ball” on Independence, the Country had a good opportunity to look at the issue from scratch. And he would be promoting the idea of independence within the UBP.

Mr. Smith makes a living as a private international business consultant.