By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
The de facto leader of a potential new municipal party in Sherbrooke said he began the process of registering a new party out of a desire to promote healthy debate in municipal politics.
Cédrick Hamel reserved the party name Vision Action Sherbrooke with Elections Québec in early February. The reservation of a name is an optional preliminary step in the formal party registration process. Hamel, 28, was president of the Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS) student federation for the 2021-2022 school year, and helped organize the Jeux de la science politique (JSP), a provincewide French-language debate and political simulation competition for university students, held at Université de Sherbrooke this past January. Until recently, he worked in online sales.
Hamel said his experience working on the organization of the JSP, a yearlong process, gave him the idea of “the importance of healthy debate” in politics. By founding a party, he said he hopes to strengthen debate at the municipal level. The current city council, divided between members of Mayor Évelyne Beaudin’s Sherbrooke Citoyen slate (six seats) and independents (eight seats), has made headlines in recent weeks as a contentious work environment; in a recent interview with Radio-Canada, Coun. Annie Godbout (independent; Rock Forest) called for the council to appoint an external mediator to help defuse what she described as a “climate of tension.”
He said it was “premature” to address the city council situation directly, but “we just want to improve the debate.”
“It would be fun to have another party so more people could form informed opinions and get involved in their city,” he added.
Youth involvement is another key issue for Hamel, whose party has yet to complete the registration process or write up a formal platform. “Our young people are dynamic and active and great,” he said. “It’s not because we’re young that we don’t have good ideas.”
He dismissed speculation that the party was a “vehicle” for the revival of Rénouveau Sherbrookois, the party of former mayor Bernard Sévigny, which announced its dissolution in 2019. “I’ve met a few people who liked my project, and some of them have participated in Renouveau [in the past] but this is not a rebuilding of Rénouveau.” In a brief text message exchange with The Record, Sévigny, who is now an adviser to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, said he was “not involved in any way” with Hamel’s undertaking and would not comment further.
Hamel emphasized that his proposed party was “in the very early days, when everything is still to be built.” The next step, he said, was to solicit signatures from 100 registered voters as part of the party authorization process. A formal general assembly and a platform would come later. “I want to respect the timeline, so I don’t have much more to say than that,” he said.