I received the news of Dr. Franklin Walkine’s passing with real sadness.
Dr. Walkine lived a life of service. He was a doctor who cared for people in their most difficult moments, and he was a former Member of Parliament for Acklins and Crooked Island who carried his community’s hopes into the nation’s Parliament.
He also served the Progressive Liberal Party with loyalty and conviction. He believed in the progressive fight, the idea that government has a duty to lift people up, protect the vulnerable, and bring opportunity to places too often left behind. In the PLP family, we have lost a brother in the cause, a man who understood that public life is about people, and that leadership means showing up.
Across our islands, Dr. Walkine helped strengthen access to emergency care, including through air ambulance services that have assisted families when time was against them. Many Bahamians, in the Family Islands especially, will remember the comfort of knowing help could reach them, even across distance and water.
In 2024, Dr. Walkine was honoured as a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George for service to public health. That recognition reflected years of steady work that made a difference in real lives, in real homes, across our country.
To his family, friends, colleagues in medicine, and the people of Acklins and Crooked Island, I offer my deepest condolences. I also extend condolences to the wider PLP family who mourn a servant of the movement and a contributor to our nation’s progress.
Ann and I pray for strength and peace for everyone who loved him. May his memory bring comfort, and may his example continue to speak.
May he rest in peace.