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]
A litigator, he practiced primarily in the field of personal injury and professional malpractice cases[5] at various law firms from his call to the bar in 1956 until elected to political office in 1989.[3]
He divorced Helene Papachristidis in 1981. He was survived by children Christopher, Arthur, and Caroline.
After briefly sitting as an independent, he shocked his predominantly English-speaking constituents when he crossed the floor to join the sovereigntistParti Québécois (PQ) in 1992. Holden's brother, John Rodney Clement Holden, 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, he was 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.[6]
