Ralph Gonsalves - The political leader of the Unity Labour Party

Ralph Everard Gonsalves, or "Uncle Ralph" (born 1946), also known as "Comrade Ralph", is the PM of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and head of the ULP  (Unity Labour Party).  Gonsalves became Prime Minister after his party gain a majority government in the 2001 general election. He is recently serving his 4th term and 15th year in office.

Ralph Everard Gonsalves was born on 8 August 1946 to Alban Gonsalves (a farmer and small businessman) and Theresa Francis (a small businesswoman) in Colonie, a village in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.  His patriarchs came to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in 1845 as indentured workers from the Portuguese-ruled island of Madeira, some 300 kilometres off the north-west coast of Morocco in North-West Africa.

He was educated in St. Vincent and the Grenadines at the Colonarie Roman Catholic School and the St. Vincent Boys' Grammar School. He completed a Bachelor's Degree in Economics at the University of the West Indies, obtaining several noteworthy accolades, including Head of the Debating Society and President of the Guild of Undergraduates. In 1971 he got a Masters in Government from the University of the West Indies. In 1974 and 1981, he got a PhD in Government and a Degree of Utter Barrister at the Manchester University, England and Gray's Inn, London.

Dr Gonsalves became the Deputy Political Head of the Unity Labour Party (ULP) in 1994. The ULP was a merger of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Labour Party and the National Unity Movement (MNU).  After the resignation of Vincent Beach, Gonsalves became the party leader in 1998 and showed the party to victory in the Elections held in 2001. Since then, he has remained Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, winning the elections again in 2005, 2010, and 2015.  Now in his fourth term and 15th year in office, Gonsalves is one of the country's longest-serving government heads.

Concurrently, while pursuing his political career and before he became the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Gonsalves practised law extensively and successfully before the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in a broad range of matters, but particularly in the fields of constitutional law, criminal law, administrative law, matrimonial law, real property law, the law of tort generally and the law of contract.

He has written, researched and published widely on a range of matters touching the Caribbean, trade unionism, African, comparative political economy, and developmental issues. Gonsalves's publications are "History and the Future: A Caribbean Perspective" and "The Politics of Our Caribbean Civilisation – Essays and Speeches". His two latest publications are "The Areas of a Prime Minister" and "The Making of the Comrade".

In 2015, Gonsalves showed his Unity Labour Party to a fourth consecutive election victory.