A Sinn Féin council candidate for Fermanagh and Omagh has said the party’s ‘track record of working for all’ has led to its strong election performance in recent times.
West Tyrone councillor Stevie McCann will seek reelection for the third time in next week’s local council elections after first being elected in 2014.
Sinn Féin became the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly elections last year and is hoping to repeat that success in this year’s local government elections.
Despite criticism from other parties over its history, McCann says the party now seeks to represent people from all backgrounds.
“What our mantra is and what we’re about is representation for everybody, working for all,” McCann says.
“We have a track record of working for all and this election is built around that. It’s about ensuring that communities have support at all stages of life.
“That’s the message that we are getting on the doors, that we are the only ones doing anything for them.
“That may sound like electioneering or whatever, but we’re hearing it and we also have a track record of delivery as well, whether that be at council level or Executive level.”
The Sinn Féin council candidate said he believes the party’s Stormont leader Michelle O’Neill made the correct decision in attending the coronation of King Charles III in London last week.
“I am an Irish republican and so is Michelle O’Neill. If we are seriously talking about building a new Ireland, we have to think about those who might not be from a nationalist background,” he adds.
“We have to make sure that the new island that we create is a welcoming place for everybody, including unionists, nationalists and those who might not be either.
“There’s a significant amount of people in West Tyrone who over the last weekend took part in celebrations around the coronation.
“Whenever Michelle O’Neill talks about being a First Minister for all, I think attending the Coronation in London shows that. Whenever you are in a position of power and leadership, you must display it.
“Michelle was absolutely right to attend the Coronation and in doing so she represented all the people of the North.”
One of the key local issues in West Tyrone that has been highlighted ahead of next week’s election is the much-delayed A5 Western Transport Corridor project.
Despite being granted Executive approval in 2006, the Department for Infrastructure’s plan has been thwarted by a series of legal challenges and funding issues, with no tarmac having been laid in the 17 years since.
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McCann says his party has done everything within its power to deliver the project during that time.
“In terms of politically we have taken it to a point where it is no longer an issue of buy in from all parties,” he says.
“There hasn’t been a minister who has not fully backed the A5. The minister in charge of the Department, whether it be Sinn Féin or from another party, they are fully committed to the rollout of the A5.
“The issue of the A5 and why we don’t have it is to do with the objectors.
“For every objection that comes in, it can take up to 18 months for that to take its course, and all the while, cost goes up and more importantly people’s lives are being lost.
“During a planning process, which this effectively is, people have the right to object but at what stage does the right to object have to make way for the right to life? At the minute people travelling on the A5 are taking their life into their hands.
“We have been leading the way on a local government level to put pressure on to have the A5 started.”
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