So, could this close ally to the Prime Minister someday be the one to replace his boss? We asked him about it:

Jules Vasquez
"Do you see yourself as somebody who should be considered in the future as, as a potential leader of the PUP?"

Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health and Wellness
"Jules, we all have ambitions. But I believe in one thing. I have always said this to myself and my, my family have always said, we do it with humility. You start from somewhere. I started off seeing that I want to make a change in my community where I started as a councilor. I decided that I think I could do that much more. And so I served as mayor for three consecutive terms. Then I thought that, you know what I think as I believe that I can do even much more. And serving in the capacity as an area representative."

"My plan is to continue to work for the People's United Party, to continue to work for the Orange Walk East constituency. And we will cross that bridge when we get there at some point."

"And and I know that people have been asking me about that, but for me, that's not the priority at this stage. That is not my priority. My priority is to continue to work for people of Orange Walk East. We will see where that trajectory takes us or where it takes me at some point. We have great people in this party that can lead this party at some point down the road. For now I am focussed on the fact that John Briceno is our Prime Minister. He's our leader. And as long as he's leading this party, I'm there to support."

Jules Vasquez
"The political center of the country, at least before redistricting, is Belize City. Those ten constituencies, and, you know, there are people in the city who feel that it's just an anomaly, that someone from the North became prime minister, and that eventually the power has to return to the political base of the country, which they see - Belize's City people see - as Belize City. That's the highest concentration of political power in the country. Do you think that in the future, since John Briceno has already set the trend, we will see more leaders from the so-called out-district?"

Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health and Wellness
"Well, I can tell you, Jules, that I see when you look around the country in the, in the PUP, you could, you could look at every area and there, there are people that can lead this party. Once and whenever the prime minister decides to, to, to leave politics, I mean, we have great people in the West. You have people in the South, you have people in the North. And of course, in Belize City, there are great people that can lead this party."

"But, I don't think that at the end of the day, it's not about whether Belize City or Belize District is the strength of the political power within any party. I think that it's up to the delegates of our party. Whenever that time comes around, who will decide who they want to lead? The party whenever the time comes."

"I know these things sometimes come up. But at the end of the day, right now, Jules, we just, we just got elected. We just got reelection. And our focus is to bring about the changes that we have set forth, in Plan Belize 2.0 and to bring better development and service delivery for people."