Pleasant M. M. Bridgewater (born 26 September 1960 in

Freeport, Grand Bahama Freeport is a city, district and free trade zone on the island of Grand Bahama of the northwest Bahamas. In 1955, Wallace Groves, a Virginian financier with lumber interests in Grand Bahama, was granted of pineyard with substantial areas of sw ...

) was a

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

and Member of The House of Assembly for the

Progressive Liberal Party The Progressive Liberal Party (abbreviated PLP) is a populist and social liberal party in the Bahamas. Philip Davis is the leader of the party. History The PLP was founded in 1953 by William Cartwright, Cyril Stevenson, and Henry Milton Tay ...

(PLP) of The

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

. She was the first Northern Bahamas woman to contest and serve in The Bahamas Parliament. She contested and was defeated in the 1992 general elections (High Rock constituency) and in September of that year was appointed and served in the Senate from 1992 to 1997 under the administration of Sir

Lynden Pindling Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling, NH, KCMG, PC, JP (22 March 193026 August 2000) was a Bahamian politician who is regarded as the "Father of the Nation" of the Bahamas, having led it to majority rule on 10 January 1967 and to independence on 10 Jul ...

. In 1997, she again contested in the general elections (High Rock constituency) and was defeated. From 2002 to 2007 she was the PLP

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

representing the Marco City constituency. Following her defeat in the 2007 general election, she was again appointed to the Senate. In 2009, Bridgewater resigned from that position in order to fight extortion allegations relating to the premature death of

John Travolta John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor. He came to public attention during the 1970s, appearing on the television sitcom ''Welcome Back, Kotter'' (1975–1979) and starring in the box office successes ''Carrie'' (19 ...

's autistic son."Bridgewater resigns from the Senate to fight extortion charges"
bahamaislandinfo.com, 24 January 2009. Bridgewater is also the senior partner of the Freeport-based law firm Bridgewater and Co., which she founded in 1997. She was called to the Bahamas Bar in 1992.

References

1960 births Living people Members of the Senate of the Bahamas Members of the House of Assembly of the Bahamas Progressive Liberal Party politicians People from Freeport, Bahamas 20th-century Bahamian women politicians 20th-century Bahamian politicians 21st-century Bahamian women politicians 21st-century Bahamian politicians 20th-century Bahamian lawyers 21st-century Bahamian lawyers {{Bahamas-politician-stub