David Payne (politician)

David Payne (born January 12, 1944 in Middlesbrough, England) is a politician and former member of the National Assembly of Quebec, Canada, from the constituency of Vachon. During his time in the National Assembly he was the only anglophone MNA within the Parti Québécois parliamentary caucus, and advocated anglophone rights in a new Québec Constitution.

Payne was raised in Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire. A keen sportsman, he graduated with a degree in philosophy from the Pontifical Gregorian University and earned a diploma in sociology at the Université catholique de Louvain. His Doctoral studies (IP) are in the field of democratization in post-conflict societies. ^[1]

Career

In the 1970s, he was appointed Directeur Général du Centre d'accueil des immigrants, then taught at Vanier College, being appointed in 1976 as Executive Secretary in the Executive Council of Quebec premier René Lévesque. He wrote "Autant de façons d'être Québécois", and headed up the public hearings into the future of the Anglophone community of the Lower North Shore producing "La Basse-Cote Nord- perspectives et développement", referred to as the Payne Report.

He was appointed Secretary to the Commission of Enquiry on the mining disaster of Belmoral in northern Quebec in 1979, and occupied senior positions both in the private sector in Quebec public service.

He was elected to the provincial legislature as the Member for the new district of Vachon in 1981, but was defeated in 1985 and 1989, only to be re-elected in 1994 and 1998.

In March 1996 he was Delegate to the Future of Europe Conference for parliamentarians at Lancaster House, London.

He was appointed Secretary General of Environnement 2000, a government supported agency preparing policies towards the Rio Summit later that year.

After his election in 1981, he was narrowly defeated in 1985 and 1989, only to be re-elected with strong majorities in 1994 and 1998. He was appointed President of the permanent Commission on Culture and Communications. He directed a number of government missions to various countries, notably in Asia and South America. As the only representative of the anglophone community in the Parti Québécois parliamentary caucus at the time, he was a frequent guest on Canadian television and radio media concerning Quebec constitutional and language affairs.

For many years Payne was President-Delegate (Quebec) of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

In 1996 he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier of Quebec. He was also Government spokesperson for English relations. In 1984 he was present in the National Assembly when an armed gunman Denis Lortie entered the building and retained a number of employees in the Quebec Parliament, killing three employees, and wounding several others. Payne left his seat in 2003 to become Economic and Commercial Delegate of Quebec to China.

Subsequently he joined the National Democratic Institute (Washington, US) as Director of Legislative Programs in Kosovo, and was Special Advisor to the President of the Assembly of Kosovo. Later he occupied a similar post for United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Afghanistan.

References

1. ^ "Biography of David Payne". Assemblée nationale du Québec. http://www.assnat.qc.ca/fra/Membres/notices/o-p/payd1.shtml. 

External links

• David PAYNE at Assemblée nationale du Québec (French)