Arthur, Owen Seymour, 1949–2020, Barbadian political leader. An economist, he worked for the Jamaican national planning agency in the 1970s and the Barbados ministry of finance and planning in the 1980s. Arthur was appointed to the Barbadian senate in 1983 and elected to the house of assembly in 1984. In 1993 he became leader of the Barbados Labor party, and in 1994, following his party's landslide victory, he became prime minister. Arthur and the party remained in power after the 1999 and 2003 elections, but were defeated in 2008. As prime minister he cut unemployment, boosted the agriculture and tourism sectors, and was an advocate of regional integration. He continued as party leader until 2013, then resigned from the party in 2014 due to differences with party leader Mia Mottley; he served as an independent until 2018.
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