The BVILOVE brand and campaign was introduced in September, 2020 after the VIP replaced the previous Nature’s Little Secrets slogan formerly used by the BVI Tourist Board in its marketing campaigns. At the time, it was announced that the new slogan was meant to bolster the BVI’s image locally, regionally and abroad by focusing on what makes the BVI a special destination and business jurisdiction.

But Flax-Charles, who is now a candidate with the Progressive Virgin Islands Movement (PVIM), suggested that the slogan never lived up to its promise. “That BVILOVE that came out in 2020, it was a political gimmick. It wasn’t sincere. It didn’t come from the heart,” she said on the PVIM Solution Time radio programme recently.

The former VIP member was at the time speaking about the level of social cohesion in the territory and reflected on how much better relationships were between the local and expatriate communities when she first arrived. “We need to go back to that time when there was really true love in the BVI,” Flax-Charles urged.

“There are people that have come here to this country and have embraced our culture, have embraced our people, and there are a lot of our people who have embraced these people because they realise that they have helped us to get us to where we are today,” Flax-Charles explained.

The first-term lawmaker shared a story about her mother’s selflessness when her family first arrived in the territory from Antigua and commented about the feedback she received from the public, commending her for sharing about her mother’s kindness in the House of Assembly recently.

“The fact that these people reached out and understood what it means to come from another country and to be able to contribute… You know, it was so surprising that I saw something come out trying to twist it and to talk about BVILOVE. There was love back then,” she argued.