Lise Payette, Quebec author, journalist, feminist and politician, dead at 87
Lise Payette, a former Parti Quebecois cabinet minister who was responsible for creating the province’s automobile insurance board and who ended up playing a key role in the 1980 referendum campaign, has died at the age of 87.
The popular Quebec feminist, author, journalist and television personality was surrounded by friends and relatives when she died Wednesday, her family said in a statement.
“Lise Ouimet Payette managed to take control of her destiny and advance Quebec society through her determination, courage and willingness to offer the generations that followed a better and more equal world,” the statement said.
Quebec sovereignty and equality for women were the causes that marked Payette’s life but she is perhaps best remembered in certain circles for unintentionally hurting the Yes campaign during the 1980 independence referendum campaign.
She compared the wife of then-Quebec Liberal leader Claude Ryan to “Yvette,” a submissive young girl in a textbook and, although she apologized a few weeks later, the damage had been done.
The comments were denounced in the media and the federalist No side jumped on them, eventually organizing a rally at the Montreal Forum attended by about 15,000 people, mostly women.
Some people described the so-called “Yvette incident” as a crucial moment of the campaign and a direct cause of the Yes side’s defeat by a margin of
60 per cent to 40 per cent.
Payette did not share that opinion but did acknowledge her remark had been clumsy.
Born in 1931 in the workingclass Montreal neighbourhood of St-Henri, she started in journalism in the 1950s with stints at various Quebec radio stations before heading to Paris.
She later returned to Quebec and worked as a TV host on a popular show dubbed “Appelez-moi Lise” until 1975. The late-night concept, new to the province, broke ratings records despite its unconventional 11 p.m. broadcast time.
Payette then jumped into provincial politics, representing the now-defunct riding of Dorion for the PQ under Rene Levesque between 1976 and 1981, and immediately became the only female cabinet minister.
During her brief political career, Payette held multiple
cabinet positions and accomplished numerous feats, including beefed-up provincial consumer protection rules.
She oversaw the revision of Quebec’s Civil Code, no longer making it obligatory for women to assume their husband’s family name upon marriage, as well as bringing in changes to allow children to carry the surnames of both parents.
Payette also extended access to daycare and was responsible for the creation of Quebec’s automobile insurance board, ushering in the province’s highly controversial no-fault insurance regime.
“For the first time in my life, I managed to have unanimity against me,” Payette wrote in her memoirs.
She also updated the province’s licence plate slogan in 1978 from “La Belle Province” to “Je me souviens,” which is still in use today.