Hamad adds former mayoral hopeful Moisan to team

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Sam Hamad’s campaign has one more candidate and the mayoral race has one less, with Leadership Québec adding Daniel Moisan to the team as its standard-bearer in the Montcalm–Saint-Sacrément district.

Moisan is described on the Leadership Québec website as “a marketing entrepreneur and multidisciplinary artist who has worked in business and culture for over 35 years.” He will face incumbent Coun. Catherine Vallières-Roland, who won the seat for Bruno Marchand’s Québec Forte et Fière (QFF) by a 16-point margin.

Moisan had entered the race for mayor in June, declaring on social media: “Politicians see themselves as people who rule, much more than people who serve the citizens.”

He appears to be opposed to the tramway project, saying it “won’t solve traffic.”

“My big dream,” he said, “if there’s one project I care about, would be for public transit to cost users $1 a day.”

Hamad, a former provincial Liberal cabinet minister and MNA for Louis-Hébert, added two more candidates in recent days, but as of this writing, Leadership Québec still lacks four to complete a slate for the 21 council seats.

The other recruits are Hugo Langlois in Vanier-Duberger (an open seat with the exit of Alicia Despins of Québec d’Abord), and Vicky Lépine, running in Cap-aux-Diamants against QFF incumbent Coun. Mélissa Coulombe-Leduc, a member of Marchand’s executive committee.

Langlois is a well-known media personality and son of former Beauport mayor and Quebec City councillor Jacques Langlois. He came a respectable second in the April federal election, running for the Conservatives in Beauport- Limoilou.

Lépine is a founding member of the Mouvement Saint-Jean Baptiste and a member of her neighbourhood council. Her party bio says she “has more than 20 years of experience in human resources management and public administration.”

She was involved in a controversial incident at a February city council meeting; when making a long preamble to a question, she raised her arm repeatedly in a gesture that Marchand called a “Nazi salute.” He subsequently withdrew the comment and apologized to Lépine.

As of this writing, of the seven parties running for Quebec City Hall registered with Elections Quebec, only QFF and Transition Québec have fielded a full slate of candidates.

The municipal election campaign across Quebec officially kicks off Sept. 19.