Background
George Michael Chambers was born in Port-of-Spain on 4 October 1930.
George Michael Chambers was born in Port-of-Spain on 4 October 1930.
Largely self-educated, he took a correspondence course in general education from Wolsey Hall, Oxford.
He worked with a firm of solicitors and in the legal department of one of the country’s oil companies before entering Peoples National Movement politics. He won the largest majority of any of the candidates contesting the general elections of 1966. After 1966 he held many cabinet portfolios. He also represented Trinidad and Tobago at several conferences of the Caribbean Community and the European Economic Community, and at International financial institutions. In the elections of 1971 and 1976 he was returned unopposed.
Chambers proved one of the most popular leaders in the PNM. He worked closely with the prime minister and emerged the natural choice to lead the party and government when Prime Minister Eric Williams died suddenly in 1981. By this time, weaknesses were beginning to appear in the booming economy of the country. The price of oil had fallen and production was dropping; industrial¬ization projects in which the state was the major investor were losing money; the government was overinvested in many construction and infrastructural projects; and there were numerous corruption scandals. However, Chambers managed to restore confidence in government and led the party to a resounding victory the year he took power.
Chambers took stringent measures to maintain economic stability. He was also able to stem the tide of corruption that plagued the government in the late 1970s. Moreover, he continued the relatively independent foreign policy of his predecessor. He was one of the few Caribbean leaders who did not support or participate in the U.S. intervention in Grenada in 1983.
Chambers’ party was defeated by an opposition coalition in elections in early 1987, and he became Leader of the Opposition.