Richard Holden (politician)

Richard B. Holden
Richard B. Holden
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec for Westmount-Saint-Georges
Personal details
Born	July 7, 1931
Died	September 18, 2005 (aged 74); Marché Atwater apartment, Montreal
Cause of death	Suicide
Nationality	Canadian
Political party	Independent
Children	Arthur, Christopher, Caroline
Residence	Westmount, Quebec
Occupation	Politician and lawyer

Last updated February 18, 2019

Richard B. Holden (7 July 1931 – September 18, 2005) was a lawyer and member of the provincial legislature of Quebec, Canada.^[1] An obituary describes him as cynical and self-deprecating, a boulevardier and a maverick.^[2]

The Quebec Legislature is the legislature of the province of Quebec, Canada. The legislature is made of two elements: the monarch of Canada, represented by the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, and the unicameral assembly called the National Assembly of Quebec. The legislature has existed since Canadian Confederation in 1867 when Quebec, then called Canada East, became one of the founding provinces. From 1867 to 1968 the legislature was bicameral, containing a lower chamber called the Legislative Assembly of Quebec and an upper chamber called the Legislative Council of Quebec.

Personal life

Holden's father was an engineer; his grandfather found fortune with a company that procured boots for soldiers during World War I . Holden studied law at McGill University and the Université de Montréal and political science at the Universite de Grenoble.

World War I 1914–1918 global war originating in Europe

World War I, also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. It is also one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide.

McGill University is a public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was established in 1821 by royal charter, granted by King George IV. The university bears the name of James McGill, a Montreal merchant originally from Scotland whose bequest in 1813 formed the university's precursor, McGill College.

The Université de Montréal is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located on the northern slope of Mount Royal in the Outremont and Côte-des-Neiges boroughs. The institution comprises thirteen faculties, more than sixty departments and two affiliated schools: the Polytechnique Montréal and HEC Montréal. It offers more than 650 undergraduate programmes and graduate programmes, including 71 doctoral programmes.

He divorced Helene Papachristidis in 1981. He was survived by children Christopher, Arthur, and Caroline.

Arthur Holden is a Canadian actor and writer. Best known as a voice actor, with roles including Mr. Ratburn in Arthur, Baba-Miao in Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat, Mayor Mallard in The Little Twins, and Mr. Larkin from What's With Andy?, he has also had roles in film, television and theatre, and has written for stage, film and television. Ars Poetica is a play that Holden wrote.

Political career

Holden first entered politics running as an independent candidate in the district of Westmount-Saint-Georges in 1962. He stood opposed to Hydro-Québec's nationalization. He finished second, ahead of the Union Nationale candidate.

Westmount was a former provincial electoral district located in the Montreal region of Quebec, Canada.

Hydro-Québec is a public utility that manages the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in Quebec.

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

The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (PC) was a federal political party in Canada.

Dollard was a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1953 to 1988.

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

Canadian federalism involves the current nature and historical development of federal systems in Canada.

The Equality Party was a political party in Quebec, Canada, that promoted the use of English in Quebec on an equal basis with French. Four Equality Party members were elected to Quebec's National Assembly in 1989, as part of an anglophone reaction to changes made by the governing Liberals to Quebec's language law. The party had no success in subsequent elections, and stopped organizing after the 2003 Quebec election.

After briefly sitting as an independent, he shocked his predominantly English-speaking constituents when he crossed the floor to join the sovereigntist 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.

Holden ran in the neighbouring Verdun riding in the 1994 election as a PQ candidate. However, Verdun was as strongly federalist as his old riding, and he was heavily defeated. After the election, the PQ government appointed Holden to the province's rental housing board, on which he served until 1999.

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.^[3]

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References

↑ "Biography". Dictionnaire des parlementaires du Québec de 1792 à nos jours (in French). National Assembly of Quebec.
↑ Le Canal Nouvelles (2005-09-20). "L'ancien député Richard Holden s'enlève la vie" (in French). Archived from the original on 2012-07-14. Retrieved 2008-09-13.

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

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[1] "Biography". Dictionnaire des parlementaires du Québec de 1792 à nos jours (in French). National Assembly of Quebec.

[2] © The Gazette (Montreal) 2005. "Richard Holden on DTNicholson's". Wednesday-night.com. Retrieved 2010-06-18.

[3] Le Canal Nouvelles (2005-09-20). "L'ancien député Richard Holden s'enlève la vie" (in French). Archived from the original on 2012-07-14. Retrieved 2008-09-13.