Dennis Drainville

Dennis Paul Drainville (born February 20, 1954) is a Canadian bishop, educator and former politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 1993; later taught humanities and history for 12 years at the Cégep de la Gaspésie et des Îles and is now the Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Quebec.

Drainville first ran for the Ontario legislature in the 1977 provincial election. He was a member of the Liberal Party at the time and campaigned in the downtown Toronto riding of Riverdale. He finished a distant third against the winner, Jim Renwick of the New Democratic Party.

Drainville later joined the NDP and, in 1989, was arrested for protesting the province's clearcutting practices in the Northern Ontario forests around Temagami. He also stood with Chief Gary Potts and the Teme-Augami-Anishinabai people in their 60-year legal battle to claim their lands in Temagami. He was fined and sent to jail in North Bay for a week in March 1991. He served three days in jail.

Drainville was the NDP candidate in the riding of Victoria—Haliburton in the 1990 provincial election. This east-central Ontario seat was not regarded as winnable – indeed, no NDP candidate in the riding had ever finished higher than third place, behind the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives. However, the NDP under Bob Rae won an unexpected majority government in the election, and Drainville won the riding by 6,520 votes over his nearest opponent.