Deborah Coyne
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Deborah Margaret Ryland Coyne, (born 1955), LLD , MPhil is a Canadian constitutional lawyer, professor and author. She is the cousin of journalist Andrew Coyne and actress Susan Coyne, and the niece of former governor of the Bank of Canada, James Coyne. Her education includes a Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Toronto and a Master of Philosophy from Oxford University in international relations.
She was a staffer in the Prime Minister's Office of Pierre Trudeau and has also worked for the Business Council on National Issues, the Ontario Human Rights Commission and been a professor of constitutional law at the University of Toronto Law School.
Coyne was as a constitutional advisor to then Newfoundland Premier Clyde Wells and helped draft his opposition to the Meech Lake Constitutional Accord. In 1992, she was one of the leaders of the "No" campaign during the referendum on the Charlottetown Accord writing and speaking extensively in opposition to the deal.
Until the 2006 federal election was called she was a member of the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board.
Coyne's daughter Sarah, born in 1991, was fathered by former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Coyne and Trudeau never married, however, and Coyne later married Canadian journalist Michael Valpy with whom she had a son. The couple are now divorced.
A resident of Ottawa, Ontario, she has rented a house in Toronto in the electoral district of Toronto—Danforth, where she was a Liberal Party star candidate against New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton in the 2006 federal election. Coyne finished second to Layton with 17,256 votes or 34.2% of the votes.
