Hamad announces first two candidates for City Hall campaign
Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
peterblack@qctonline.com
Mayoral candidate Sam Hamad introduced the first two candidates for his Leadership Québec party, both of whom have backgrounds working within the provincial government.
At a news conference held in a crowded chauffeur’s cottage at Domaine Cataraqui on May 29, Hamad said Justine Savard and Jean-Stéphane Bernard “embody the strong, unifying leadership we want to offer the citizens of Quebec City. They each have an impressive track record, deep roots in their communities, and are ready to fully invest in improving the quality of life in their neighbourhoods.”
Savard, a lawyer who has worked in the office of Coalition Avenir Québec ministers Sonia LeBel and the late Nadine Girard, ran for the party in the 2022 election in the Montreal riding of Viau.
Savard will be running in the Beauport district of Sainte-Thérèse-de-Lisieux, a seat currently held by executive committee member and former mayoral candidate Jean-François Gosselin, who has announced he will not run again for city council.
Bernard, a CEGEP Champlain-St. Lawrence graduate who went on to earn degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the École nationale d’administration publique (ENAP) and Université Laval, is a former deputy minister of international relations and Canadian relations, who has also served as Quebec’s representative in Washington and New England.
Bernard will run in the Saint-Louis–Sillery district, currently held by executive committee member Maude Mercier Larouche, who has also said she is not running again.
Bernard, a resident of Sillery since he was a child, said the leap into politics is “just a continuity of what I’ve been doing for the last 30 years, working for the people of Quebec City, working for the people of the district that I wish to represent.”
In an interview with the QCT, he said he is “honoured, to be honest, to have this op- portunity to work with some- one who’s the leader that Quebec City needs.”
Savard, for her part, said she got back into elected politics at the municipal level, because “I’m a working mom and I’m really, really fond of my community and I saw a couple of things in the city that weren’t sitting well for me. So I decided that may- be with Sam Hamad we can change the course of things.”
Asked what she learned as a provincial candidate three years ago, Simard said, “I think I’m a better listener now,” having had the experience of knocking on doors to hear what citizens have to say.
During the news conference, neither candidate was willing to venture a specific opinion on the tramway project, whereas Hamad, who op- poses the plan, said he would release his party’s detailed platform “before the [summer] holidays.”
Hamad also responded to questions about the CAQ government’s “third link” bridge project, the location of which is supposed to be announced in June. He downplayed a comment he had made previously in favour of a bridge to the west near the current spans.
He said, “I will let the specialists decide technically where it should go, with acceptability and [the least] in- convenience” for the citizens of the city.
Hamad, incumbent mayor and Québec Forte et Fière Leader Bruno Marchand, Transition Québec Leader Jackie Smith and Québec d’abord Leader Claude Villeneuve are the declared candidates for city hall so far. Respect Citoyens Leader Stéphane Lachance has also said he plans to run for mayor, although recent reporting by Radio-Canada has cast doubt on whether he meets the residency requirement.
Municipal elections will be held across Quebec on Nov. 2.