The Honourable Orville Alton Thompson "Tiny" Turnquest is a Bahamian politician. He is the current member of Parliament (MP) for Mount Moriah and the Minister of National Security.
Turnquest was born on November 16, 1959 to Sir Orville Turnquest, former Governor-General and Lady Edith Turnquest.[1]
He attended St Anne's High School in Nassau and Malvern College in England. He was also enrolled in the University of Western Ontario in Canada. He has worked at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. During his banking career, he was the manager of the East Bay Street Branch until the general election in August 1992.
Turnquest began his political career in 1981. He was instrumental in the reactivation of the Torchbearers, the youth wing of the Free National Movement (FNM) where he served as president for 4 years. On August 19, 1992, he was elected the MP for Mount Moriah and then re-elected in the 1997 general elections. He has held many positions in the FNM, including Parliamentary Secretary for the Prime Minister's Office, Minister of State for Public Service and Labor, Minister of State for Public Works and Minister for Tourism. He was appointed Minister of Public Works on March 20, 1997. After being voted leader-elect at a FNM party convention in August 2001, he had looked likely to succeed Hubert Ingraham as Bahama's next Prime Minister.[2] However, at the May 2nd, 2002 general elections, Turnquest lost his constituency seat to Keod Smith, the Progressive Liberal Party candidate.[1] He served as Leader of the Opposition in the Senate until the next general election, on May 2nd, 2007 when he won back the seat of Mount Moriah, serving under Prime Minister Ingraham. On May 4, he was sworn in as the Minister of National Security by His Excellency the Hon. Arthur D. Hanna, Governor-General.