This will be my last article before the election. This has been my first candidature and, although it has been a tiring and trying time, I have to say it has been a very interesting period of my life.

As a family doctor you learn that you are not only there to cure people’s ailments. Through my profession, I have always been close to many families and have heard people from all walks of life tell me of their sufferings and worries. Besides, being a family doctor I sometimes become a confessor, a friend and a shoulder. And I always knew this was a great responsibility to carry—to hear and say the right thing at the right time, to be patient even when I am busy, hungry or dead tired. My involvement in politics naturally made it more important for me to visit families and listen to what people have to say, to know what makes people tick and what bothers them.

And I am happy to say that I believe I have chosen the right track – to be of service to Malta, to my constituents and to my party if I am successful in my bid to become an MP. I have always felt that loyalty is the backbone of all there is in life. Without loyalty there is nothing; without loyalty there is just individuality that leads to nowhere.

I chose the PN because I believe in what they have done and offered and what they offer for the future: a commitment to keep on the right course, to believe in the family and to safeguard with all our might the work which has been the strength of our country. The PN in power has been a rejuvenating force for change – change that has seen our country move from mediocrity to being amongst the better class of citizen in the EU, change that saw our health services remain free and improved beyond our imagination. Yes, the PN is and will be my choice because the future needs to be consolidated and not changed on a whim.

During my house visits several people tell me that their life has never been so good and that is why they will be choosing PN. Little squabbles in a family do not make you leave home – you resolve the problems, accept them as part of life and go on to see the bigger picture. Life would be better without the fights and problems, but one does not walk out on a good life just to go for blind change. You change when there is serious trouble but our country has no serious trouble. It has been on a good track for long years and now is not the right time to change. Especially with all the seas around us being turbulent, we have to make sure we safeguard what we have and what we have achieved. Wrong decisions, wrong messages, weak leadership now could cost us heavily. With the PN we have a path that’s clear, that’s tested and been successful so Labour is – or should be – a non-starter.

Labour is full of smirking faces and dubious splitters—most of whom sound like opportunists more than seekers of new ideologies. I tell the doubters, the ones who are still not sure whether they will vote for the PN, to come to the PN Mass Meeting this afternoon. There they will feel the difference between new Labour, which is still tied to old Mintoffians like Leo Brincat and Alex Sciberras Trigona, and our party which has continuously introduced new blood.

This reinvigorated PN is full of energy and will see new projects being launched and new horizons reached. Labour has a mask of newness with an inside that is old, battered and rusty, like an old car that needs scrapping but has had its holes filled with cheap putty and the warts glossed over. Those warts will reappear in a few months’ time if Labour is chosen to lead this country.

One of my recent home visits was to a family that has traditionally voted Labour. They told me they did not feel comfortable with their old party because they did not feel comfortable with its ways. This family’s way of life has improved so much these last few years that they feel they must not risk it.

The wife told me it was a tough decision to discard Labour but then said something that keeps echoing in my mind. “How can we,” she asked, “because of old affiliations, risk our children’s position in life? How can we risk what we have for a flag we loved so much and which anyway has now been dumped?” These are the silent switchers not to but from Labour.

I will be working hard these last few days to ensure a PN victory. Do the same not for the sake of the party but, like that ex-Labour supporter, do it for your own sake. By taking revenge on the PN the ultimate loser is not the party but you, your children and your family.

Dr Rizzo Naudi is a candidate for the Nationalist Party in the general election