By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
A new political party is gearing up to make its mark on the municipal political scene in Sherbrooke. The name Vision action Sherbrooke was reserved with Elections Quebec effective Feb. 2. According to Élections Québec, reserving a party name is an optional preliminary step a person or group can take before formally registering a party. The group’s name does not appear on the list of parties that have formally applied for authorization.
If Vision action Sherbrooke completes the registration process, it will become the second recognized municipal party in Sherbrooke. The council is currently divided between representatives of Sherbrooke citoyen, the party of Mayor Evelyne Beaudin (six seats) and independent councillors (eight seats).
According to Élections Québec, the party leader is Cédrick Hamel, an executive at a Sherbrooke-based sales lead generation company and former president of the Fédération étudiante de l’Université de Sherbrooke. He also worked for the campaign of Philippe Pagé, now a spokesperson for Beaudin, when Pagé was the Québec Solidaire candidate for Richmond in 2022. Hamel, who The Record was unable to contact on Wednesday, told La Tribune he wanted to “improve the debate” in municipal politics. He added that for the new party, “everything remains to be built.”
City council sources indicate that the new party will draw inspiration from Renouveau Sherbrookois, the party of former mayor Bernard Sévigny, which dissolved in 2019. Councillor Danielle Berthold, city council president and the only former member of Renouveau Sherbrookois still serving on council, told The Record she did not want to comment. Attempts to reach Sévigny were unsuccessful.
Former councillor Vincent Boutin, the last leader of Renouveau Sherbrookois, has been executive director of La Grande Table, a food security organization, since 2022. He said he was “keeping an eye on what was happening” but didn’t have immediate plans to re-enter active politics. “I’m an observant, interested citizen,” he said.
“In 2019, we ended the activities of the party because we felt there wasn’t an appetite for it,” he said. “Four years later, I feel things have evolved. Having a party allows you to put a structured team in place; it allows you to develop a vision for a city with a bunch of [other people] who share that vision; it helps get candidates and volunteers and funding. The fact that there would be two different visions [in a two-party election campaign] will help people make a choice.”
Lennoxville Councillor Claude Charron, who sits as an independent, said he would “prefer a fully independent council,” where every member votes according to their own convictions and the priorities of their district. “As an independent, I came in to represent Lennoxville … but if you’re in a party, you would vote the party line.” He also expressed concern that having two parties alongside a contingent of independents could lead to “stagnation” if there was no clear majority. “Look at the federal or provincial government; when it’s a minority government, you go around in circles.”
In a brief email, Pagé said Beaudin was “thrilled to see citizens getting together to exercise their citizenship.”
The next municipal elections in Quebec are scheduled for October 2025.