David Payne (born January 12, 1944) is a diplomat and former politician. He is a former member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada, from the constituency of Vachon. During his time in the National Assembly he was one of two anglophone MNAs within the

Parti Québécois The Parti Québécois (; ; PQ) is a sovereignist and social democratic provincial political party in Quebec, Canada. The PQ advocates national sovereignty for Quebec involving independence of the province of Quebec from Canada and establishin ...

parliamentary caucus. Payne was born and raised in

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

. He graduated with a degree in philosophy from the

Pontifical Gregorian University The Pontifical Gregorian University ( it, Pontificia Università Gregoriana; also known as the Gregorian or Gregoriana,) is a higher education ecclesiastical school ( pontifical university) located in Rome, Italy. The Gregorian originated as ...

and earned a diploma in sociology at the

Université catholique de Louvain The Université catholique de Louvain (also known as the Catholic University of Louvain, the English translation of its French name, and the University of Louvain, its official English name) is Belgium's largest French-speaking university. It ...

. His Doctoral studies (IP) are in the field of democratization in post-conflict societies.

Career

Payne moved to Quebec in 1971 to become the ''Directeur Général du Centre d'accueil des immigrants''. From 1973 to 1976, he taught at

Vanier College Vanier College ( French: ''Collège Vanier'') is an English-language public college located in the Saint-Laurent borough of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded in 1970 as the second English-language public college of Quebec's public colle ...

. In 1976, he was appointed Executive Secretary in the Executive Council of Quebec premier

René Lévesque René Lévesque (; August 24, 1922 – November 1, 1987) was a Québécois politician and journalist who served as the 23rd premier of Quebec from 1976 to 1985. He was the first Québécois political leader since Confederation to attempt ...

. He wrote ''Autant de façons d'être Québécois'' (''So many ways to be 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". He was appointed Secretary to the Commission of Inquiry on the mining disaster of Belmoral in northern Quebec in 1979. He was elected to the provincial legislature as the Member for the new district of Vachon in

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

, but was defeated in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

and 1989, only to be re-elected (with strong majorities) in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

. He did not run in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

. In 1984 he was present in the National Assembly when a gunman,

Denis Lortie Denis Lortie (born March 10, 1959) is a former Canadian Forces corporal. In 1984, he stormed into the Parliament Building in Quebec City and opened fire with several firearms, killing three government employees and wounding 13 others. The Natio ...

, entered the building and detained a number of employees in the Quebec Parliament, killing three employees, and wounding several others. He was appointed Secretary General of Environnement 2000, a government supported agency preparing policies towards the Rio Summit later that year. 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 anglophone in the PQ 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 Delegate (Quebec) of the

Commonwealth Parliamentary Association The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), previously known as the Empire Parliamentary Association, is an organisation which works to support good governance, democracy and human rights. In 1989 the patron of the CPA was the Head of ...

. In 1996, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the

Premier of Quebec The premier of Quebec ( French: ''premier ministre du Québec'' (masculine) or ''première ministre du Québec'' (feminine)) is the head of government of the Canadian province of Quebec. The current premier of Quebec is François Legault of the ...

. 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. Later he occupied a similar post for United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Afghanistan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Payne, David Living people 1944 births English emigrants to Canada Parti Québécois MNAs Anglophone Quebec people People from Longueuil People from Middlesbrough 21st-century Canadian politicians