As the 2025 general election race in Dominica heats up, United Workers Party candidate Juliette Shillingford has stepped forward to contest the Roseau Central constituency, bringing a professional, community-focused platform rooted in her decades of experience as an urban planner. Shillingford, a lifelong resident of the constituency, says her decision to enter politics stems from a long-held conviction that Dominica’s capital city has been overlooked for far too long — and that Roseau deserves more attentive, forward-thinking leadership than it has received to date.
Unlike many candidates who limit their engagement to criticizing incumbents’ failures, Shillingford says she chose to run to be part of the solution, turning decades of professional expertise in urban design into actionable policy for the community she calls home. Her core vision for Roseau centers on reimagining the capital as a regional Caribbean model that balances thoughtful modern development with careful preservation of the city’s unique cultural and natural heritage, a balance she argues current leadership has failed to deliver.
Shillingford’s policy priorities for the constituency cover environmental, infrastructure, social and economic goals. Top on her environmental and public space agenda is the expansion of accessible green public areas across the city, the full reconstruction of the iconic Roseau Botanical Gardens, and the completion of the long-delayed public library project that residents have waited years for. She has also pledged to overhaul the city’s aging street and sidewalk networks to make Roseau more walkable and accessible for pedestrians of all ages, while addressing the persistent issues of inadequate parking and crippling traffic congestion that disrupt daily life for residents and visitors alike.
Beyond physical infrastructure, Shillingford has emphasized that investing in Roseau Central’s young people is a non-negotiable part of her agenda, calling for expanded investment in youth education and sports programming to give the next generation the resources they need to thrive. She has also drawn attention to growing economic strains on local commerce, noting that a steady stream of established small businesses have closed in recent years, while more and more residents are forced to operate informal retail from their vehicles. Shillingford attributes this trend in part to a critical lack of affordable commercial space for emerging small enterprises, which she describes as the backbone of Roseau’s local economy.
To ensure her platform reflects the actual needs of Roseau Central residents rather than top-down partisan priorities, Shillingford is currently holding one-on-one and community meetings with constituents across the constituency to gather input for what she calls a “people’s vision manifesto”, a public document that will formalize her policy pledges ahead of election day.
