Dennis Drainville, who served as Anglican diocesan bishop of Quebec from 2009 to 2017 after holding elected office in Ontario’s first NDP government, and who later ran as a federal Green Party candidate, died on Aug. 3 at the age of 72.
His tenure as bishop included a proposal to unite the dioceses of Quebec and Montreal. In 2015, while still Quebec bishop, he was a nominee in the election for bishop of Montreal after the retirement of Bishop Barry Clarke, though he was not ultimately elected.
Clarke describes Drainville as a friend with whom he worked closely, seeking ways to deepen collaboration between the two Quebec dioceses.
“The joy of working together and looking at possibilities was exciting,” Clarke says. “I enjoyed working with Dennis. He [was] a forward thinker and had his ideas and I had mine and we tried to find ways in which we would be supportive of [each other’s] respective dioceses.”
An educator as well as a bishop and politician, Drainville held a B.A. in medieval studies and an MDiv from the University of Toronto’s Trinity College. He was ordained as a deacon in 1982 and a priest the following year, initially serving in the rural parish of Land O’Lakes in the diocese of Ontario. He went on to serve as an associate priest at Christ Church Cathedral and a chaplain at McGill University in Montreal, and as a parish priest in the diocese of Toronto.
In Ontario’s 1990 provincial election Drainville ran as the NDP candidate for the riding of Victoria—Haliburton, winning a seat as an MLA in Bob Rae’s government. He quit the NDP caucus in 1993 after voting against his party’s budget when it proposed opening casinos in Ontario to raise revenue.
Moving back to the diocese of Quebec, Drainville taught English, drama, history and the humanities at the CÉGEP de la Gaspésie et des Îles in Gaspé. He served as an honorary assistant in the greater parish of Gaspé and archdeacon of Gaspé. In 2007 he was elected coadjutor bishop of Quebec, becoming diocesan bishop two years later after the retirement of Archbishop Bruce Stavert.
“Dennis was a pretty strong-willed person and he had strong convictions,” Clarke says. “You could see those being lived out in his faith journey … He had leadership before that in the political arena as well. I believe he had a strong conviction around ecology and inclusiveness within the life of creation, [including] the life of the church.”
Clarke says Drainville was attuned to the challenges of anglophones living in Quebec while also trying to build French-language ministry in the dioceses of Quebec and Montreal.
Following his retirement as bishop, Drainville ran in the 2019 federal election as the Green Party candidate for the riding of Gaspésie-Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine. He told the Anglican Journal at the time that the twin threats of climate change and unethical government inspired his decision to re-enter politics.
Drainville “could speak out on many issues that were both political and religious,” Clarke says. “He had that combined experience to be able to articulate his own political views … but also his own religious views.”
Canon John Simons, honorary assistant at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Dorchester, N.B. and former principal of Montreal Diocesan Theological College, knew Drainville for 45 years. Simons preached at Drainville’s induction into the parish of Land O’Lakes, at his consecration and installation as bishop of Quebec, and was scheduled to deliver a eulogy at Drainville’s celebration of life on Aug. 15 at St. Matthew’s United Church in Gaspé.
“All I can say is that he was a good friend and I shall miss him,” Simons says of Drainville.
The late bishop is survived by his wife and daughter, two stepchildren and four grandchildren.
