Richard Holden (politician)

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Richard B. Holden (7 July 1931 – September 18, 2005) was a lawyer and Member of the National Assembly (MNA) of Quebec, Canada. ^[1]

[edit] Political Career

He had first entered politics running as an Independent candidate in the district of Westmount-Saint-Georges in 1962. He finished second, ahead of the Union Nationale candidate.

Holden also ran unsuccessfully for the Progressive Conservatives in the 1979 federal election in the riding of Dollard placing a distant second place.

He was elected the National Assembly in the 1989 election as a candidate of the federalist, English-rights Equality Party, but was expelled from the Equality Party for balking at party discipline.

After sitting as an Independent, he shocked his predominantly English-speaking Westmount constituents when he crossed the floor to join the separatist Parti Québécois (PQ) in 1992. Holden's brother, Rodney, stopped speaking to him and threatened to change his name as a result of the defection.

Following his defeat as a PQ candidate in neighbouring Verdun riding in the 1994 election, the PQ government appointed Holden to the province's rental housing board on which he served until 1999.

[edit] Death

Suffering from chronic, debilitating back pain, Holden committed suicide at the age of 74 by jumping from the eighth-floor balcony of his Atwater Market apartment in Montreal. It has been rumoured that his death was also the result of years of accumulation of his name being jokingly shortened to 'Dick Holden'. ^[2]

[edit] Footnotes

National Assembly of Quebec
Preceded by Richard French (Liberal)	MNA for Westmount 1989–1994	Succeeded by District merged with Saint-Louis