An­drea Perez-Sobers

Se­nior Re­porter

an­drea.perez-sobers

@guardian.co.tt

Ed­ward “Ed­die” Hart, for­mer Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Tu­na­puna, long-stand­ing Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) ac­tivist, and na­tion­al­ly recog­nised sports and com­mu­ni­ty leader, passed away yes­ter­day morn­ing, draw­ing trib­utes from across the po­lit­i­cal, civic, and sport­ing land­scape.

Hart’s death has been wide­ly de­scribed as the loss of a fig­ure whose in­flu­ence ex­tend­ed far be­yond elec­toral pol­i­tics, touch­ing gen­er­a­tions through youth de­vel­op­ment, com­mu­ni­ty ad­vo­ca­cy, and sport, par­tic­u­lar­ly in Tu­na­puna and Tacarigua.

Leader of the Op­po­si­tion and PNM Po­lit­i­cal Leader, Pen­ne­lope Beck­les, MP, ex­pressed deep sor­row at the pass­ing of her for­mer col­league, with whom she worked close­ly dur­ing her tenure as Min­is­ter of Cul­ture.

“I am deeply sad­dened by the pass­ing of my for­mer col­league, the Hon. Ed­ward ‘Ed­die’ Hart, for­mer Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Tu­na­puna and for­mer Ju­nior Min­is­ter dur­ing my tenure as Min­is­ter of Cul­ture,” Beck­les said.

She de­scribed their re­la­tion­ship as strong and pro­duc­tive, ground­ed in pro­fes­sion­al­ism, mu­tu­al re­spect, and a shared com­mit­ment to pub­lic ser­vice. “Dur­ing our time in of­fice, he brought ded­i­ca­tion, in­sight, and a gen­uine pas­sion for the de­vel­op­ment of our na­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the ar­eas en­trust­ed to his care. He was dili­gent, thought­ful, and al­ways pre­pared to con­tribute mean­ing­ful­ly to the work be­fore us,” Beck­les added.

She al­so re­flect­ed on their friend­ship be­yond Cab­i­net and par­lia­men­tary re­spon­si­bil­i­ties, de­scrib­ing Hart as a col­league who could al­ways be re­lied up­on and a friend whose coun­sel and ca­ma­raderie she val­ued.

For­mer PNM Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Ash­ton Ford re­called Hart as a unique and mul­ti­fac­eted in­di­vid­ual, whose pub­lic life was shaped as much by sport and com­mu­ni­ty ac­tivism as by pol­i­tics.

“Ed­die Hart was wide­ly known first as a sports­man and com­mu­ni­ty work­er be­fore en­ter­ing Par­lia­ment, and he re­mained deeply con­nect­ed to Tu­na­puna through­out his life,” Ford said. “I first en­coun­tered him in 1967 when he launched a league in protest against the then T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion. That is how our friend­ship be­gan.”

Hart’s sport­ing lega­cy be­came one of his most en­dur­ing con­tri­bu­tions. Through the Ed­die Hart Foot­ball League, which op­er­at­ed for over four decades, he pro­vid­ed struc­tured op­por­tu­ni­ties for young peo­ple across the Tu­na­puna con­stituen­cy, pro­mot­ing dis­ci­pline, team­work, and per­son­al de­vel­op­ment.

Ford said Hart’s po­lit­i­cal jour­ney was marked by per­sis­tence and re­silience, par­tic­u­lar­ly in his elec­toral bat­tles in Tu­na­puna. Hart con­test­ed the seat five times, win­ning on four oc­ca­sions, in­clud­ing a no­table last-minute vic­to­ry in 1991. “That is why it was a big thing—he came in at the last minute, had a short time to cam­paign, and he won,” Ford re­called.

Hart rep­re­sent­ed Tu­na­puna in the fourth, fifth, sev­enth, and eighth Re­pub­li­can Par­lia­ments, serv­ing ap­prox­i­mate­ly 16 years in pub­lic of­fice. His roles in­clud­ed Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary and Min­is­ter of State in sev­er­al min­istries, in­clud­ing Health, Sport and Youth Af­fairs, Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Cul­ture, Gen­der Af­fairs, and Tourism.

The Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, in a state­ment, said Hart’s life was de­fined by ded­i­cat­ed pub­lic ser­vice and com­mit­ment to com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment, not­ing that his lead­er­ship left an in­deli­ble mark on the re­gion.

“His lega­cy is per­haps most vis­i­bly ho­n­oured through the Ed­die Hart Sa­van­nah, the most fre­quent­ed recre­ation­al space in the East and with­in the Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co re­gion, named in recog­ni­tion of his con­tri­bu­tion to sport, youth de­vel­op­ment, and com­mu­ni­ty life,” the state­ment said. “Gen­er­a­tions have gath­ered, com­pet­ed, and cel­e­brat­ed on these grounds, mak­ing the sa­van­nah a liv­ing tes­ta­ment to Hart’s vi­sion and ser­vice.”

Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West MP Stu­art Young al­so paid trib­ute, de­scrib­ing Hart as a PNM stal­wart and pa­tri­ot whose en­er­gy was con­stant­ly fo­cused on bet­ter­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go, par­tic­u­lar­ly Tu­na­puna. “I thank him and salute him for his ser­vice and all that he con­tributed to T&T,” Young said, ex­tend­ing con­do­lences to Hart’s fam­i­ly and friends.

In a state­ment, the PNM de­scribed Hart’s life as one de­fined by re­silience, dis­ci­pline, and ser­vice, high­light­ing his up­bring­ing in a chil­dren’s or­phan­age in Tacarigua and his rise to na­tion­al lead­er­ship. The par­ty not­ed that grass­roots de­vel­op­ment re­mained cen­tral to his work, in­clud­ing found­ing the Hart Con­nec­tion, a com­mu­ni­ty-based or­gan­i­sa­tion aimed at up­lift­ing res­i­dents and ad­dress­ing so­cial needs.

Hart re­ceived the Dr Er­ic Williams Medal of Ho­n­our in Jan­u­ary 2019 dur­ing the PNM’s 63rd an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tions and, in 2020, was award­ed an Hon­orary Doc­tor of Let­ters de­gree by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go in recog­ni­tion of his life­long ser­vice.

Be­yond pol­i­tics and sport, Hart re­mained ac­tive in faith and com­mu­ni­ty life, in­clud­ing an an­nu­al ser­vice at the An­gli­can church in Tu­na­puna, un­der­scor­ing the breadth of his en­gage­ment across na­tion­al life.

As trib­utes con­tin­ue, Hart is be­ing re­mem­bered as a pi­o­neer, men­tor, and ad­vo­cate who nev­er re­lin­quished his com­mit­ment to Tu­na­puna and Tacarigua, and whose lega­cy will en­dure through the in­sti­tu­tions, spaces, and peo­ple shaped by his life’s work.