David Christopherson
Canadian politician

David Christopherson (born October 5, 1954) is a Canadian politician. From 2004 until 2019, he represented the riding of Hamilton Centre in the House of Commons of Canada. He previously served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 2003, and was a cabinet minister in the provincial government of Bob Rae. Christopherson is a member of the New Democratic Party.
Early life and career
Christopherson was born in Hamilton, Ontario. He is self-educated, having dropped out of high school in the ninth grade. A voracious reader, he is a particular fan of books on politics. He began working with International Harvester in Hamilton at age 19, and remained with the company for eleven years. He was active with the United Auto Workers union, becoming plant chairman in 1978 and president of the Local 525 in 1979.
Christopherson campaigned in Hamilton East in the 1984 federal election, finishing second against Liberal candidate Sheila Copps.
The public source identifies “David Christopherson” as canadian politician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around David, Christopherson and Canadian.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3017669. VIAF identifies the subject as 268214615. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1954, 2004, 2019 and 1990.
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This entry incorporates text from “David Christopherson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.