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In his own words

At a Progressive Labour Party rally in July 1992: "I am a Bermudian. This is my Country. I'm taking it back. "After 28 years of living outside of Bermuda, if you think I've come home just to practise medicine, you couldn't be more incorrect.

"I have scores to settle, accounts to pull even. I don't overestimate my ability to change things. But I believe the strongest powers in existence are working with me, first the Almighty God then the people. Together we are going to make a change."

Urging PLP supporters not to vote United Bermuda Party at a rally ahead of the July 2003 General Election: "Have you ever heard of any people on the planet who have voted their way back onto the plantation? No? Then you do not want to be the first."

Telling PLP supporters about rebel MPs' tactics disposing of Premier Dame Jennifer Smith immediately after the July 2003 General Election: "We did mislead you — individually and collectively — on Thursday at the polls by smiling and being quiet about our level of discontent with the leadership and our intended action on Thursday evening."

Introducing the concept of "plantation questions" in March 2006: "I had a meeting today with one member of the media and told him some of the questions seemed to be unreasonable and unfair and that in future I would be declining to answer certain questions on the grounds that they are plantation questions."

To former United Bermuda Party leader Grant Gibbons in the House of Assembly in December 2006: "If I called that member a racist dog, you see it is the dog that matters ["Mr. Speaker is he calling me a racist dog?"] Mr. Speaker, I would never call that member a racist dog, because I can tell that he is not a dog."

At a PLP rally in July 2007: "We shall take the hits and dust off our shoulders but we will not hide, not shuffle or bow down. We will stand up again, again and again, we will stand up, raise our swords and slay the lying, vile, underhanded and vengeful UBP dragon.

"And if you think the UBP isn't vengeful, then ask Maxwell Burgess."

Facing the media at the height of public protests over the Uighurs controversy in June 2009: "This too shall pass."

On the demise of the Mid-Ocean News in October 2009: "Someone sent me an e-mail when the announcement was made about the Mid-Ocean, and I can't remember who it was, but it said: 'One down, one to go.'"

In his final House of Assembly speech in July 2010: "For those still intent on judging me, permit me to commend to you the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt: 'I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.'"

At his final Brown Bag Lunch in September 2010: "I had a pretty good idea of Bermuda. Our no-can-do attitude. I knew I was bringing ideas I either picked up in Jamaica, Washington or California.

"I knew I was going to be considered arrogant. I expected resistance. Every day, going to work was like preparing for battle."

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Published October 20, 2010 at 1:00 am (Updated December 10, 2010 at 10:07 am)

In his own words

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