Hamad to announce for mayor, Marchand loses councillors
Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
peterblack@qctonline.com
The race for mayor of Quebec City in November is shaping up to feature at least four candidates, with former provincial Liberal minister Sam Hamad preparing to jump into the fray.
Several media outlets re- ported last week that Hamad, the former MNA for the suburban Louis-Hébert riding, has set April 6 as the date he will launch his campaign.
There are also reports Hamad has been in discussion with Équipe Priorité Québec (EPQ), the second Opposition at City Hall with two seats. The new interim leader of the party, Coun. Stevens Melançon, told reporters he would not be the party’s candidate for mayor. Former councillor Patrick Paquet had been party leader without a seat on council.
EPQ is the current name for the party that ran in the previous two elections as Québec 21, under the leadership of Coun. Jean-François Gosselin. Gosselin came a close third in the 2021 mayoral race, behind winner Bruno Marchand of Québec Forte et Fière and Marie-Josée Savard, running for what was the party of longtime mayor Régis Labeaume.
Gosselin joined the Marchand administration as executive committee member responsible for sports and recreation. He has decided to finish his term and not run again.
Hamad had been courting sitting councillors to join his team, including Louis Martin of Québec d’abord, who left the party two weeks ago and was voted out as council chair.
Another Hamad target was Isabelle Roy, councillor for the Robert-Giffard district; Québec d’abord leader Claude Villeneuve kicked her out of the party caucus for having talks with Hamad.
A central plank of Hamad’s platform, according to his statements, will be opposition to the tramway project.
With this game of musical chairs underway, other councillors are joining Gosselin in departing City Hall. Pierre-Luc Lachance, the executive committee member responsible for finance and councillor for Saint-Roch–Saint-Sauveur, announced his departure several weeks ago.
Longtime councillor Steeve Verret of Lac-Saint-Charles–Saint-Émile has also let it be known he plans to leave city hall once his current term is up. He replaced Martin as chair of council following the latter’s ouster.
The other confirmed departure from Marchand’s team is Maude Mercier Larouche, the first-term councillor for Sainte-Foy–Sillery-Cap-Rouge and member of the executive committee responsible for the Réseau de Transport de la Capitale (RTC), as well as large projects.
She told reporters she is taking a break from politics to spend more time with her family and to take care of her mother.
Meanwhile, Québec d’abord has officially confirmed the party’s four remaining councillors will be running for re-election. They are Patricia Boudreault-Bruyère in Neufchâtel–Lebourgneuf, Anne Corriveau in Pointe-de-Sainte-Foy, Véronique Dallaire in Les Saules–Les-Méandres and Alicia Despins in Vanier-Duberger.
Despins, a St. Patrick’s High School graduate, told the QCT “it’ll surely be a few weeks” before the party announces new candidates for the open seats on council. She said the party recently held its general assembly and “we voted on the overarching political orientations.”
The party now called Québec d’abord elected 10 councillors in the 2021 election, with Marchand’s QFF winning seven seats and Québec 21 four.
Limoilou Coun. Jackie Smith ran unsuccessfully for mayor as leader of Transition Québec, but won her council seat. She is running again for mayor. The only other declared mayoral candidate as of this writing is Stéphane Lachance of the newly created Parti Respect Citoyens.