David Hamelin-Schuilenburg

Born and raised by a post WWII Dutch immigrant single mother & grandparents, Dave is an allophone Quebecer & Canadian, native of the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region. A graduate of the former Lakeshore School Board (Dorion Gardens & Edgewater Elementary, and MacDonald High), Dave exemplifies the quality of French taught in an anglophone system, having graduated his grade 11 immersion French in grade 10. Dave left the region to pursue a career in telecom in the US in 2000, and redirected his career in Public Safety after the 9/11 attacks. While there, he obtained a certificate from the Katz School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh. Dave returned to Canada in 2016, originally landing in Ottawa where he worked for Transport Canada, and then returned home to his native Quebec so as to return to the Public Safety sector where he still works as an Emergency Communications Officer today.

Raised to leave things better than he finds them, Dave has been extremely involved in community & environmental groups since his early adult years. He continued this civic activism while in the US, organizing annual neighborhood cleanup initiatives & building playgrounds. Dave was also an elected local democrat in Pittsburgh, and worked on both of President Obama’s campaigns in western Pennsylvania. Most recently, Dave represented the Green Party in last year’s federal election, and has turned his attention to trying to improve the transportation system in the Vaudreuil-Soulange area, including advocating for an extension of the West Island REM line to Vaudreuil since the CAQ government will not even include a dedicated bus lane on the soon to be rebuilt Iles Aux Tourte bridge. “An emergency shoulder is not a high occupancy vehicle / reserved bus lane! The Vaudreuil-Soulange region, one of the fastest growing areas in Quebec, deserves better”!

While Bill 96 will negatively impact him & his children in very direct ways, as a public safety officer and the grandson of someone who escaped the grasps of Nazism, Dave joins the CaPQ in the fight against Bill 96 in staunch opposition to warrantless searches & seizure powers being bestowed by provincial bureaucrats. The Canadian Party of Quebec welcomes his dedication to the fight for the rights of all Quebecers, Anglophones, Allophones & Francophones alike.