David Payne (politician)

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David Payne (born January 12, 1944 in Middlesbrough, England) is a Quebec politician and former member of the National Assembly of Quebec from the riding of Vachon. During his time in the National Assembly he was especially notable as the only anglophone member of the Parti Québécois.

Of Irish heritage, Payne was raised in Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire. He is a graduate in philosophy and sociology of the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Université catholique de Louvain.

In the 1970s, after arriving in Canada, he ran a Montreal center for immigrants, then taught at Vanier College. After having worked in the private sector in the 1980s, Payne became a civil servant in the early 1990s.

He was elected as a PQ deputy in Vachon in 1981, but was defeated in 1985 and 1989, only to be re-elected in 1994 and 1998. As Payne was the only representative of the anglophone community of Quebec in the Parti Québécois, he was frequently requested as a contact for anglophone media.

He was notably also a vice-president of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, as well as a parliamentary assistant to Lucien Bouchard.

Payne retired in 2003 to become to the economic envoy of Quebec in Shanghai. He aided in the campaign of his successor as PQ candidate in Vachon, Camil Bouchard.