Patricia Lortie
Patricia was born in Victoria, educated at Norfolk House School, University of Victoria (BA 1969), and Harvard University (MA Romance Languages 1971). She joined the Canadian foreign service in 1971 and served abroad: Tunis (1973-75), Washington (1979-83), Paris (1989-93) and in Ottawa (her last assignment was Director General in the International Organizations Bureau in the Department of Global Affairs (1998- 2004). She took a leave of absence to accompany her diplomat husband Marc to Chile where he served as Ambassador (1993 -1997), and then returned to Harvard as Visiting Fellow at The Centre for International Affairs (1997-1998). She retired from Foreign Service in 2004 to accompany Marc when was ambassador to Spain (2004-2007) and France (2007-2012) in both Madrid and Paris where she enjoyed the opportunity to study art history. She returned to Victoria when Marc retired in 2012. Patricia has served on various boards, most recently on the Victoria Symphony (2012- 2018), and has had a lifelong interest in the visual arts. As a girl she took classes from artist Peggy Walton Packard and Nita Forest (upstairs at the Art Gallery). Patricia pursued interests in watercolour painting with classes in Washington, Santiago, the Ottawa School of Art, Le Musee des arts decoratifs in Paris and has participated in exhibitions in Santiago, Madrid and Paris.
