The One Bermuda Alliance wants to give more power to the people to ensure the Island’s political culture is “more collaborative and less confrontational”.The thrust of the Opposition party’s reply to the Throne Speech was that people needed to take advantage of their collective strength by speaking out about “the business of Bermuda, their business”.OBA leader Craig Cannonier said it was time to “bring change to Bermuda” by “breaking the cycle” of Government dividing people for political gain.He told the House of Assembly yesterday that they would build upon their founding principle of inclusiveness, as all people, regardless of race or class, deserve to be heard.Mr Cannonier said: “An OBA Government will embrace all Bermuda for the sake of Bermuda … We will immediately overhaul the Parliamentary Elections Act to involve as many citizens as possible in decisions about the future of the Island. We will extend the advance poll for those who are travelling, and absentee ballots to students living abroad.“We will introduce measures to bring a greater level of accountability to the political process than we have today.“We will give people the opportunity to initiate referenda on major issues of the day giving them the right to have their say in our collective future.“We will arm constituents with the right to recall their Member of Parliament. We will introduce fixed-term elections. No longer will a government’s political agenda take precedence over the public agenda. Think of fixed term elections as the people’s deadline.”Mr Cannonier went on to say that the Island needed to “get beyond petty partisan politics” with more bipartisan cooperation, parliamentary committees open to the press and public and a strong Public Accounts Committee. He also said that the OBA would invite a member of the Opposition to sit in Cabinet.Mr Cannonier commended the Throne Speech on its theme of ‘Let Us Build One Another Together’ saying it had the right sentiment to help Bermudians get through the tough times.He said the OBA agreed with initiatives such as career and job training for young Bermudians, health insurance reform, reviewing the 60/40 business ownership rule, a referendum on gambling and the redevelopment of Hamilton’s waterfront.But Mr Cannonier said many of the ideas put forward had been “borrowed from us” and he questioned, “whether this Government can be trusted to follow through on all they promise”.He also highlighted the fact that Government had made no mention in the Throne Speech of its $1.2 billion debt calling it “one of the most significant facts of life in Bermuda today”.Much of the reply to the Throne Speech centred on the economy with the OBA detailing how they would reverse “Government’s short-sighted, ill-tempered, alienating stance toward international business”.He said people were “suffering like never before” and Bermuda needed a new approach to “get the Island back to work” rather than repeatedly blaming the hard times on the global economy.He accused Government of being passive and said Bermuda needed to “shape its destiny” by encouraging business opportunities and having a more efficient regulatory system.Mr Cannonier said the term-limit policy, which he said had been a “job killer for Bermudians” needed to be suspended for two years while an alternative was sought.He also said guest workers should be treated as “our customers” as “they bring wealth to our Island, they spend in our stores, and they create jobs”.Mr Cannonier went as far as to blame the faltering economic performance on the Immigration Department’s “intimidating manner and bureaucratic hassles”.He said: “It is not good enough to tell the business world ‘we’re open for business’; we should be telling them ‘we want your business’.”Mr Cannonier also cited the need for Operation Ceasefire to be introduced to tackle the rise in violent crime. He also said parish constables were needed in neighbourhoods and police needed to be better equipped with advanced technologies.The OBA also vowed to shake-up the public education system, which has been “repeated in report after report” over the PLP’s 13 years in power. They say they will draw up a detailed plan following through on the Hopkins report recommendations, starting at preschool and continuing to Bermuda College.Mr Cannonier said the tourism industry needed to be revitalised as 2011 had seen “no direction and no meaningful marketing presence”. The party would “put tourism in professional hands” with a Tourism Authority and capitalise on Bermuda’s selling points with a ‘new tourism brand’.Mr Cannonier also spoke passionately on race relations, telling personal stories about the disparity between blacks and whites. He said people had to “tell the truth” about racism as it remained the root cause of many social ills.He said: “We believe Bermuda is ready to respond to new leadership leadership that is free of the political past, confident in the people, committed to justice, empowerment and responsible government; and ready to take on the future.”Mr Cannonier looked calm and relaxed as he read the 19-page reply to the Throne Speech; his maiden speech as an MP and first as leader as the Opposition. He spoke for nearly an hour only pausing to take the occasional drink of water.Mr Cannonier made the controversial decision to start speaking at 12.30pm, which is traditionally when the House breaks for lunch. He said at a later press conference that although he realised how important lunch was to some people, he said: “I was prepared, I was excited, I couldn’t wait”.* The One Bermuda Alliance has pointed out that it made a mistake in the Reply to the Throne Speech when reporting on the Island’s murder rate:A spokesman said: “The OBA apologises for the statistics errors in its crime summary in The Reply to the Speech from the Throne. They were incorrectly drawn from the Police Service statistical report."For the sake of accuracy, we should have reported 36 people being shot in 2010, not 37, and that 16 people died from gunshot wounds from 2009 to 2011 to date.”