Price says goodbye to politics
Life, recently retired borough mayor David Price will tell you, is full of surprises. In his case the surprise isn’t that he is retiring from political life after a career that spans almost 30 years, but rather that he ended up in politics at all.
“If you look in the 1963 Sherbrooke High School year book,” David Price says with a laugh, “you’ll see that I was voted most likely to never be involved in politics.”
As he tells his story, it becomes clear that while he never aspired to a political career, the political powers that be clearly sought him out.
Born and raised in the east end of Sherbrooke, he is the fourth or fifth generation of his family to call the Queen of the Eastern Townships home. His childhood memories include growing up next door to Dr. Gagnon and his family of nine kids.
“That’s where I learned French,” David Price says. “I speak street French because that’s what I learned playing with the kids next door. My sister, who taught Graphic Design at Laval University, cringes when she hears me speak French, but it’s always served me very well both in and out of politics.”
Before finishing his last year of high school, David Price had to leave school. “My father suffered a heart attack. He owned and operated his own business, Price Electric, a company he had founded in 1927. I had to take over for him. The first thing I had to do was get my master electrician papers and when I got them, I was the youngest contractor in Quebec.”
He also went back to school. “I finished my secondary at night school,” he says. “At the time you could follow the academic stream that would give you access to university, or the commercial
stream. I took commercial because I needed practical skills like typing and bookkeeping.”
A little later on, he also took night courses at Bishop’s University in business law and accounting. He never earned the degree in electrical engineering that he had envisaged as a young teenager, but he did become Vicepresident of Bishop’s University.
As an electrician, he was selective about the jobs he did. “I had no patience with running wires through unfinished walls,” he states. “What I did enjoy was trouble shooting. I liked the problem solving aspect of electricity and as a result I did a lot of industrial work.”
Price’s political penchant first showed itself when he became president of the Eastern Townships chapter of the Corporation of Master Electricians of Quebec. He also became president of the Eastern Townships Agricultural Association, better known as the Sherbrooke Fair.
Some 30 years ago, with his friend Robert Downey, Price co-founded the Lennoxville-ascot Chamber of Commerce in an effort to promote and stimulate commercial activity in the area. In 1989, wanting a stronger voice for commerce and industry, Price threw his hat in the political ring and was elected town councillor. Then, in 1993, he was elected mayor of Lennoxville. The fact that he spoke French, he will tell you, played a significant role in his ascension to the mayor’s chair.
It was Jean Charest who drew David Price out of the mayor’s chair. “I’m a lifelong Liberal,” Price says, “but I ended up helping Jean Charest in the lead-up to the 1997 federal election. Shortly after the campaign started, the Progressiveconservative candidate who was supposed to run in the Compton-stanstead riding withdrew.”
Jean Charest persuaded David Price to step into the unexpected vacancy. “I certainly never expected to win,” he continues. “I lived in Lennoxville so I was a parachuted candidate. I was an Anglophone and the incumbent was a member of the Bloc Quebecois. I was as surprised as anyone when I won the seat.”
Three years later, in 2000, he won reelection, although this time under the Liberal banner. “The truth is that regardless the party you run for, you’ll never be 100% in accord with the party’s platform. There are always aspects of the platform that you believe in strongly and others that you question or disagree with. I’m not left-leaning, nor am I right wing. I’m very much main-stream, and both the Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives were, at the time, main stream parties. It was a time when members of parliament were much more collegial, much less partisan, than they are today.”
During his time in government David Price travelled frequently to Europe as he was very involved with NATO. He also became a member of the Privy Council.
His experience with NATO gave him some insight into the electoral systems of numerous European countries. “I’m not against proportional representation,” he says, “but there are several different formulations of proportional representation and I’m not sure which one would best suit Canada.”
Like many others, David Price found that lawyers made up a disproportionately large percentage of Canada’s legislators. “I didn’t meet any other electricians in parliament,” he said. “I did meet several farmers, doctors, social workers and media people, who, like me, decided to run for office.”
To avoid conflicts of interest, when Price found himself in government, he sold Price Electric. “I sold it to my three employees,” he says. “Since then, they’ve all retired. The company still exists and has the distinction of being the oldest construction company on the south shore.”
David Price’s career in federal politics came to an end in 2004 when he lost his seat, ironically, to a Bloc Quebecois candidate, France Bonsant. He ran again, in 2006, and again lost to Bonsant.
Three years later, in 2009, he returned to municipal politics and was elected President of Sherbrooke’s Lennoxville borough, a position he held until November 5th when his name did not appear on the ballot.
For David Price, it was time to retire. “I never thought I’d be this old,” he says with a smile. “In recent years I have become a mentor of sorts. A few different people have sought me out to ask advice about entering politics, including Marieclaude Bibeau, who’s the MP for Compton-stanstead and Minister of International Development and of La Francophonie in Justin Trudeau’s government.”
“Education and background are definitely important factors for someone seeking political office,” he continues. “I think an elected official has to be a good listener, and has to be honest, transparent. Someone can get himself elected for many different reasons, a charismatic persona or a clever way with media. But there can be quite a gap between having what it takes to get elected, and having what it takes to serve in public office.”
What does retirement hold for the long-time Lennoxville politician? “I’m not going to travel any longer,” he asserts. “I’ll probably continue doing volunteer work, in particular with the Grace Village Foundation, the Dixville Foundation, and Global Excel, which does a lot of very good work in the community and abroad.”
Community, clearly, has always been important to David Price, and it is just as clear that, even though he will no longer be Lennoxville’s best-known politician, he will remain involved in his community and, at least on occasion, he will still be acting as a trouble shooter.