Michael Pintard
Michael Clifton Pintard is a Bahamian politician, writer and former playwright who has served as leader of the Free National Movement and leader of the Opposition since November 2021. He has represented Marco City constituency in the House of Assembly since the 2017 general election, and earlier served two terms in the Senate of the Bahamas, from 2010 to 2012 and from 2014 to 2016. Pintard has held two Cabinet posts, serving as minister of Youth, Sports and Culture and as minister of agriculture and marine resources.
Before entering front-line politics, Pintard worked as a human-resources consultant, motivational speaker and cultural producer. He wrote and staged a number of plays and published several books of poetry and political commentary.
Pintard first came to national political prominence as FNM national chairman from 2014 to 2016, but in March 2016 resigned that post and his Senate seat amid controversy over a lawsuit by the environmental group Save The Bays alleging that Canadian fashion executive Peter Nygård had financed a "murder-for-hire" plot against his opponents. The controversy deepened when leaked recordings emerged of Pintard discussing affidavits and possible payments with self-described gang members linked to the case. Critics accused him of using the affair as a political weapon against the governing Progressive Liberal Party. Despite the fallout, he later returned to front-line politics and was elected leader of the FNM in 2021.
Early life and education
Pintard was born on 3 July 1964 in Nassau, the son of Laura Pearline Benson and John Samuel Pintard. He received his early education in Nassau and studied agriculture at the College of The Bahamas, where he completed an Associate of Arts degree in agriculture.He went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in agronomy from Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama, and later completed graduate-level courses in agricultural economics at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Pintard received the James Michener Scholarship to attend the Caribbean Summer Writers Institute at the University of Miami. College of The Bahamas materials describe him as an internationally certified compliance and anti-money laundering officer and a licensed real estate salesman.
Arts and professional career
After completing his studies, Pintard worked as a human resources development consultant, public speaker and writer. Material from the College of The Bahamas describes him as a human resources development consultant who has shared his expertise at conferences and forums in The Bahamas and abroad, including in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Asia and the Caribbean.He worked mainly through his company Scribes Ltd/Scribes Edutainment, which produced educational and cultural programmes and managed stage productions. In the 1990s and 2000s he wrote and produced a number of plays dealing with social issues such as crime, family conflict and youth violence. These included the drama Not My Child, staged in Freeport, Grand Bahama, in October 2010.
Alongside his creative work, Pintard held a number of corporate and consultancy positions. He served as organisational development manager for the Grand Bahama Airport Company, the Freeport Harbour Company and the Freeport Container Port, and later consulted for clients including Vopak Terminal Bahamas and the ministry responsible for the public service. He also acted as a consultant to the Bahamian government in ministries responsible for economic development, tourism, youth, sports and culture, and hosted the radio talk show The Way Forward on GEMS 105.9 FM in The Bahamas.
Pintard is also a founding partner of Congo Town Development Ltd, a Bahamian property company that focuses on housing projects in urban areas. Together with his business partners he developed the Plumbago Gardens residential project in the Fox Hill district of New Providence.
Political career
Senate and early candidacies (2010–2014)
Pintard was first appointed to the Senate of the Bahamas on 19 March 2010 by Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham. At the time he was described by Ingraham as an "accomplished playwright and brilliant humorist" as well as a teacher and human-resources consultant. His appointment drew criticism from the opposition Progressive Liberal Party, which argued that naming a Free National Movement partisan to fill a long-vacant seat was a "clear violation" of a ruling by former Chief Justice Sir Burton Hall on the constitutional provisions governing the three senators appointed on the prime minister's advice after consultation with the leader of the opposition under Article 39 of the Bahamian Constitution.Representing the Free National Movement, he ran unsuccessfully for the Cat Island, Rum Cay & San Salvador constituency in the 2012 general election, losing to Progressive Liberal Party deputy leader Philip "Brave" Davis, who received 778 votes to Pintard's 693.
In June 2014 he was again appointed as a Free National Movement senator. He replaced John Henry Bostwick, who was removed from the Senate after refusing to resign over an ammunition possession charge.
FNM chairman and Nygård lawsuit controversy (2014–2016)
At the FNM's November 2014 convention, Pintard was elected national chairman of the party, part of a new leadership team with party leader Hubert Minnis and deputy leader K. Peter Turnquest. As chairman he frequently clashed with PLP ministers over issues such as alleged conflicts of interest and government oversight of major investment projects.In 2015–2016 Pintard became involved with the environmental coalition Save The Bays, formed to challenge what it said was unlawful dredging and construction at Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygård's Lyford Cay estate and backed in part by Nygård's neighbour and long-time adversary, hedge-fund manager Louis Bacon. In March 2016 STB directors and allies filed a civil action in the Supreme Court of the Bahamas alleging that Nygård had financed a campaign of intimidation, including an alleged "murder-for-hire" plot, against Bacon, STB lawyer Fred Smith and other opponents. Affidavits sworn by two self-described gang members, Livingston "Toggie" Bullard and Wisler "Bobo" Davilma, alleged that Nygård had recruited them to carry out criminal acts on behalf of a "hit list". According to press summaries of investigator John DiPaolo's affidavit, the two were later "tracked down with the help of" Pintard, who alerted STB figures to their claims about Nygård and the alleged plot.
Within days Nygård's legal team released counter-affidavits said to have been sworn by Bullard and Davilma in Canada in 2015, in which they alleged that they had in fact been promised US$3 million and paid US$50,000 up front for "false testimony" against Nygård and claimed that a payment meeting at a Nassau hotel attended by Pintard had been secretly recorded. The controversy escalated when audio recordings purporting to capture conversations between Pintard and each man circulated on social media. In one recording, according to an official government newsletter and subsequent press reports, Bullard is heard asking for US$500,000 to sign an affidavit. Editorials and political opponents argued that by negotiating affidavits and possible payments with self-described gang members instead of promptly handing the matter to the police, and by "wheeling and dealing" with them, Pintard looked less like an independent investigator and more like a political operator using criminals in a campaign against the PLP.
On 21 March 2016, under increasing political pressure from the governing PLP and unease within his own party, he resigned as FNM chairman and as a senator. He described the move as "not an admission of guilt" and rejected suggestions that he had done anything illegal or unethical, saying he had sought to help friends and colleagues get to the bottom of hate rallies and threats against STB. After stepping down from the chairmanship, Pintard remained active within the FNM and delivered speeches criticising both the PLP administration and leadership disputes inside his own party.
Member of Parliament and cabinet minister (2017–2021)
In the run-up to the 2017 general election, the FNM ratified Pintard as its candidate for the Marco City constituency on Grand Bahama, a swing seat that has been held by both the PLP and the FNM in previous elections. He won the seat at the general election held on 10 May 2017 as the FNM secured a landslide victory over the governing PLP, taking 35 of the 39 seats in the House of Assembly, and was subsequently sworn in as Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture in the Minnis Cabinet later that month.In July 2018 Prime Minister Hubert Minnis appointed Pintard Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources. In that role he oversaw fisheries policy and programmes to support farmers, and represented The Bahamas at regional and international agriculture and fisheries forums, including leading the national delegation to the 41st session of the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome and participating in meetings organised by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture and the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute.
In 2019, after Hurricane Dorian severely affected Abaco and Grand Bahama, Pintard was one of several ministers tasked with assessing and coordinating recovery efforts in the agricultural and marine sectors. He described the damage to agriculture and marine resources in Grand Bahama and Abaco as "catastrophic" and said that preliminary assessments indicated losses of "well in excess of" US$60 million.
The FNM was defeated by the PLP in the September 2021 general election, winning only seven of the 39 seats in the House of Assembly. Pintard was nevertheless re-elected with 57% of the vote cast in Marco City as one of the party's seven MPs.