2025 Municipal Elections

Geophysicist and bell-ringer Micha Horswill runs for Transition Québec

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

Geophysicist and bell-ringer Micha Horswill runs for Transition Québec

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

If being a geophysicist on city council wouldn’t be a first, Micha Horswill might well be the first church bell-ringer with a council seat, should she get elected in November.

Horswill, who on June 5 launched her campaign for the Cap-aux-Diamants council seat at a bar on Rue Saint-Jean, is a woman of many interests, now including municipal politics.

Her day job is as a research professional with Université Laval’s geophysical instrumentation group, but she still finds time to attend neighbourhood council meetings, make TikTok videos about “the city’s hidden gems,” and, yes, ring church bells.

As she explained in an interview prior to her launch party, friends had encouraged her to consider a city council run, which she initially rebuffed, but the idea “grew on me and I kept thinking about it and I said ‘why not?’ I was born here, I live here … and I have ideas. So, I decided to jump into the pool.”

Horswill, 31, said she only knew Transition Québec lead- er and Limoilou Coun. Jackie Smith from media reports, but she “loved” the social and environmental values of the party. She said the municipal politics bug took hold thanks to her experiences at neighbourhood council meetings.

One of those experiences was pushing for the creation of a mural on a side street off Rue Saint-Jean; the effort was a success and taught her a lot about how things get done in a city bureaucracy.

As she says on her Facebook page: “I’m in love with Quebec City–and I dream of it. I see it bigger, more vibrant, more avant-garde and more fair. I allow myself to dream, but I don’t just have my head in the clouds.

“I have my feet firmly planted, with my geophysicist’s perspective, which requires rigour, consistency and pragmatism. I’m trained to analyze complex systems, read between the layers and find the root causes of problems. I want to bring that perspective to the city as well.” Though her father is an anglophone from British Columbia who moved to Quebec City when he was young, Horswill was raised and educated in French. She said she learned her (fluent) English in school and perfected it in the years she worked in Europe, where “everything was in English.”

She recalls a high school rivalry with Quebec High School, but she said, “Now I’ve made peace with QHS and accepted that my basketball team wasn’t exactly the best.”

Her more recent interaction with the city’s anglophone community was with bell-ringers, a largely English-speaking group. She got involved about two years ago when she heard the bells being rung at the former St. Matthew’s Church on Rue Saint-Jean (now a public library, Bibliothèque Claire-Martin), was intrigued, and after some internet searching, found the change-ringing group and signed up.

“I discovered a nice community that is very vibrant,” she said. She was happy to participate when the city recently welcomed change-ringers from around the world.

“We’re the only city in Canada that has two bell-ringing towers,” Horswill said with some pride. The other bells are in the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in the Old City, where she lives.

Horswill is proud of the his- tory of her city to the extent she highlights many aspects through brief videos on her TikTok channel. One of them features the top three libraries in the Old City, one of which is that of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec at the Morrin Centre.

Horswill said it “pains her to see” not enough local residents live in the Old City. “It’s the birthplace of an entire nation. People should be living there, we should see children, neighbours.”

She said one measure to encourage people to live in the Old City would be to improve public transportation. “Having a walled city is great for tourists, but it keeps [residents] captive.”

Among other issues on her agenda are homelessness in the central city, the lack of trees in the Saint-Jean- Baptiste neighbourhood and the lack of a large grocery store for Old City residents.

Horswill said, “I think I will win,” although she does have competition in the form of Mélissa Coulombe-Leduc, the incumbent councillor from the ruling Québec Forte et Fière (QFF) party and member of the executive committee for heritage, planning, tourism and quality of life in the Old City.

QFF has announced candidates for all but two of the 21 council seats. Two notable additions to the party’s slate are Marchand’s media attachée Élainie Lepage, running in Saint-Roch–Saint-Sauveur, and Manouchka Blanchet, who was actually elected in 2021 in Beau- port’s Sainte-Thérèse-de-Lisieux district as the running mate of Jean-François Gosselin, the unsuccessful mayoral candidate for the now defunct Québec 21 party.

Sam Hamad’s Leadership Québec party added three more candidates to its slate last week: Mégy Gagné in Val-Bélair; Donald Gagnon in Louis-XIV and former Équipe Labeaume candidate Émilie Robitaille in Neufchâtel-Lebourgneuf.

Municipal elections are held across the province on Nov. 2.

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Hamad announces first two candidates for City Hall campaign

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

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.

Hamad announces first two candidates for City Hall campaign Read More »

Youngest councillor, St. Pat’s grad Alicia Despins leaving City Hall

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Youngest councillor, St. Pat’s grad Alicia Despins leaving City Hall

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Stories abound of people leaving municipal politics for negative reasons. Then there’s the rare departure motivated by something positive. It’s what might be called an intermunicipal love story.

Coun. Alicia Despins (Vanier-Duberger) dropped a bombshell last week, announcing her decision to not seek a second term under the banner of Québec d’abord, the remnants of former mayor Régis Labeaume’s party.

Despins made the announcement via a news release on May 8, saying she “will not be seeking a third term, in order to begin a transition to a new chapter in my life focused on my studies and family projects.”

Despins, first elected in 2017 at age 23, was the youngest person ever elected to Quebec City council. On top of that distinction, Labeaume promptly named her to the executive committee with the culture portfolio.

In 2022, the Union of Quebec Municipalities awarded her the emerging leader award for her efforts in providing a role model for young people.

Despins is a graduate of St. Patrick’s High School, and also attended Holland School and St. Vincent School; her English education eligibility is courtesy of her father, a native of Ontario.

Although she had previously said she planned to run again in November, she recently made the decision to quit politics – at least temporarily. She plans to move in with her boyfriend, who lives in Val-d’Or, and start a family with him.

The boyfriend is Benjamin Turcotte, a first-term city councillor in Val-d’Or who also teaches literature at Cégep de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue. The two met a year ago at the Union of Quebec Municipalities convention in Montreal. Since then, Despins said, they’ve been discussing ways to move forward with their long- distance relationship.

Then, she said, sparked by Turcotte’s opportunity to acquire a house near his parents in Val-d’Or, she came to the decision.

Speaking to the QCT while driving to Val-d’Or, Despins said, “A series of coincidences and other things all of a sudden made it clear that that’s what we have to do. We have to buy the house and move in together and start a family and [I’ll] finish my PhD. And it all happened very quickly. So I’m still kind of processing everything.”

She said, “I think it’s the right decision for me right now. I’ve been in elected politics for eight years now, and I also feel the need to maybe have a less stressful life.”

While she’s been a councillor for nearly two terms – she plans to finish out her second mandate – Despins has been involved in politics since her teens. While a student at CEGEP, she took part in the 2012 student protests against tuition hikes. She later formed a municipal political party with fellow students called Alternative Québec.

After working in the of- fice of former Quebec Liberal education minister Sébastien Proulx, she made the leap into municipal politics in 2017 with Équipe Labeaume in the Vanier-Duberger district, winning the seat with 57 per cent of the vote, the highest margin of the 21 winning councillors.

Despins said her proudest moment of her time at City Hall was being named to the culture portfolio. “I did not expect that in 2017, at 23 [years of age]. That was the proudest moment and then everything that hap- pened from then on.”

In Labeaume’s recently re- leased memoir, Le Code Labeaume (see review in this edition), Despins recalled, “When Régis met with me to announce it, he explained that he wanted to make room for young people, that he thought it was important to have women in politics and that he wanted to entrust me with real responsibilities. He also told me, ‘You’re going to have to deliver.’ It wasn’t complacent at all. It was an exceptional opportunity he of- fered me, but it wasn’t handed to me on a silver platter.”

Asked whether she thought she had met her mentor’s expectations, Despins said, “I think I did – and also he told me I did – so that was important for me.”

Once established in Val-d’Or, Despins plans to complete her PhD thesis on the international relationships of cities, a topic she says has heightened relevance currently with the American tariff war.

As she completes her term at City Hall, Despins said, “I’m going to enjoy every day because I don’t know if it will ever come again; being proud of representing people. I see the end coming with lots of feelings mixed together.”

With the departure of Despins, Québec d’abord, the official opposition party at City Hall, now has only three incumbent candidates running again, besides leader and mayoral candidate Claude Villeneuve.

In a news release, Villeneuve said of Despins, “While her departure saddens me, I respect and understand her decision. Politics is an intense profession. Alicia has always done her job well, and I learned a tremendous amount from working with her. It has been a privilege to work with her over the past few years.”

Municipal elections will be held Nov. 2.

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Jackie Smith enters mayoral race for Transition Québec

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Jackie Smith enters mayoral race for Transition Québec

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

Limoilou Coun. Jackie Smith and the Transition Québec party she leads have officially jumped into the mayoral race. The party held a launch event on May 10 at Le Bivouac in Limoilou, which was also broadcast on Facebook Live.

Speaking to an enthusiastic crowd, Smith said she planned to run for mayor in 2025 and keep pushing her party’s progressive platform.

She looked back on the 2021 election, where she came third in the mayoral race but won her Limoilou council seat. “I felt so proud and lucky – not only to be elected as the only woman to lead a party, and to represent Transition Québec, but my God, we worked hard … we proposed bold ideas and bold citizens pushed us forward. These are shared victories.”

Among the “shared victories,” she counted the inauguration of Place Karim-Ouellet in Saint-Jean-Baptiste, a tax on abandoned buildings, a tax on motor vehicle registration to fund mass transit, two new bike paths and a subsidy program for eco-friendly menstrual products and diapers. “It makes women’s lives easier and it keeps waste from going to the incinerator – it’s a feminist, ecologist policy that clearly has the Transition Québec stamp on it, so thank you for that!

“There are people who say ‘Your policies are a bit nutty,’ but the number of times people have said it’s impossible and then it becomes possible … I don’t give up,” she said, referencing the transformation of disused city offices in Saint-Roch into the Répit Basse-Ville warming centre for homeless people, which the party championed.

Speaking over Mother’s Day weekend, in a crowded restaurant where laughing children and crying babies could be heard over the din, the mother of two young children said it was “very difficult” to balance raising children and being a politician. “There are very few women of childbearing age who are in politics … and at City Council, at public consultations, who do we hear from? From men, and sometimes from women who don’t have kids. They are the ones we listen to. But that doesn’t mean women [with children] have nothing to say. Speaking with moms at the park, those are the real public consultations – why has this bench been broken for three years? Where are our kids supposed to pee if there’s no washroom in the park?

“We’re facing a lot of challenges, and there is a whole transition that came with the pandemic that we are just now getting out of, questions about democracy, supply chains, and the climate that hasn’t stopped changing. But we will be equal to the challenge, because we know where we are, we know where we’re going and we’re resilient,” she said.

Transition Québec has announced three council candidates in the past week in addition to Smith – activist and Maizerets neighbourhood councillor Martial Van Neste in Maizerets–Lairet, Camille Lambert-Deubelbeiss in Robert-Giffard and Espérance Mfisimana as Smith’s running mate in Limoilou.

Mfisimana was born in Burundi and arrived in Quebec City as a refugee in 1993. She now works in human resources. Like Smith, she’s the mother of young children. She spoke about the importance of making working-class and racialized people feel more represented by the political system. As Smith’s running mate, Mfisimana would take her seat as councillor for Limoilou in the event Smith be- comes mayor. If this happens, she would be the first Black woman, and only the second Black person, to serve on city council. “I mistakenly believed for a long time that politics was something for the elite,” she said. “I think politicians do try hard to represent working- class and minority citizens, but we don’t see those citizens. I don’t see many people like me on city council, and even fewer racialized women in [decision-making] roles. I hope I can be an inspiration for women from minority groups to run for office,” she said.

Jackie Smith enters mayoral race for Transition Québec Read More »

Former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister Sam Hamad runs for mayor

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Former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister Sam Hamad runs for mayor

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

It’s official. After months of speculation and a certain amount of teasing, Sam Hamad has entered the race for mayor of Quebec City.

The 67-year-old former provincial Liberal cabinet minister and MNA for Louis-Hébert made the announcement April 6 in front of an enthusiastic crowd of some 300 supporters packed into the Salle du Quai du Cap-Blanc meeting hall.

The site for the announcement, on Boul. Champlain, was a particularly symbolic one for Hamad, who said in his 15-minute speech that the creation of the three phases of the Promenade Champlain project was his proudest achievement.

Hamad, introduced by two Cégep de Ste-Foy students and his two sons, Jean-Simon and Louis-Joseph, said, “As you know, I left politics in 2017, but in reality, politics has never left me. Since then, I have found a quality of life, a rewarding job and precious time with my loved ones. It’s true, I have everything to lead a happy life, but I have always had the need to serve my community.”

Hamad was born in Syria and came to Canada in 1978 to study engineering. “I arrived in Quebec alone. Very young. All I had were two suitcases, but big dreams. This city welcomed me, it offered me exceptional opportunities and today, I feel more than ever a duty to give back to this city that has given me so much.”

Under the banner of a new party called Leadership Québec, Hamad said he is “running so that Quebec [City] can regain its momentum. So that it can start dreaming big again. So that we can finally emerge from the uncertainty, the division and the stagnation.”

First elected in Louis-Hébert in 2003, Hamad was a minister in a string of portfolios under Jean Charest and Philippe Couillard, including natural resources, labour, treasury board, economic development and transport, as well as minister for the capital region.

Besides the Promenade Champlain redevelopment, Hamad said he had “delivered the merchandise” for other major city projects, including the PEPS at Université Laval, the Videotron Centre, the expansion of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and the Hôpital de l’Enfant-Jésus.

Hamad noted his collaboration with former mayors Jean-Paul L’Allier and Régis Labeaume, former PQ minister and MNA for the downtown riding of Taschereau Agnès Maltais, Conservative MP Gérard Deltell and federal ministers and premiers from all parties.

“What has always guided me is working together in the best interests of the citizens of Quebec,” he said.

Hamad unveiled a five-point program at the launch: “Bring back strong, mobilizing leadership to Quebec City; put citizens back at the heart of municipal decisions; revive Quebec City’s economy with ambition and boldness; uphold its status as the national capital; and manage public finances responsibly, respecting taxpayers’ ability to pay.” As for his position on the current tramway project, Ha- mad said he would be laying out a detailed plan that serves both the downtown and the suburbs during the campaign. He has stated previously the tramway in its current form is too expensive. He told the QCT, “I will come back with this. It’s 210 days [in the campaign], so we have enough time to explain exactly what the project is, what we need.”

As for candidates for Leadership Québec, Hamad said, “I’ll launch with a solid team, rooted in the reality on the ground. We won’t campaign against an administration or another party. We’ll campaign for the citizens of Quebec. We want to rally all those who believe that Quebec can do better.”

Attendees the QCT spoke to cited Hamad’s experience as the main reason for support- ing him, as well as uncertainty about the tramway project.

One supporter was even more specific. Francine DeBlois, active in a Saint-Jean-Baptiste neighbourhood citizens group, said, “Hamad is a man who listens to us, which is not the case with the current mayor.” She said her group had gone to a city council meeting to raise concerns, but “it was always the same cassette. Everything was already decided.”

Besides Hamad, the other declared mayoral candidates are incumbent mayor Bruno Marchand of Quebec Forte et Fière, Claude Villeneuve of Quebec d’abord, Jackie Smith of Transition Québec and Stéphane Lachance of Parti Respect Citoyens.

Municipal elections in Quebec take place on Nov. 2.

Former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister Sam Hamad runs for mayor Read More »

Possible mayoral candidate Hamad slams cost of tramway

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , , ,

Possible mayoral candidate Hamad slams cost of tramway

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

He’s not yet officially in the race for mayor of Quebec City, but former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister Sam Hamad appears to be staking his campaign on killing the tramway project.

Hamad’s concerns about the cost and nature of the mega-project are well known. In August, as reports surfaced of his interest in a bid for mayor, Hamad told the QCT, “There is a lot of missing data, so I can’t judge it. How much is it going to cost citizens? Nobody knows that.”

Now, in a Radio-Canada report, Hamad has declared himself ready to fight for an alternative. He said, “We have completely lost control of this project. I will propose a vision of mobility that respects the ability of Quebec citizens to pay.”

As of last week, Hamad has yet to set a date for the anticipated launch of his campaign.

His stance against the tramway, however, may have cost him a potential candidate. Isabelle Roy, the councillor for Québec d’abord in the Robert-Giffard district, had been booted from the party caucus by leader Claude Villeneuve for having had discussions with Hamad about possibly running for a party he would form.

Roy, who now sits as an independent, had told the QCT she is keeping her options open regarding the next election, and not ruling out running on a Hamad ticket.

In the wake of Hamad taking a public stand against the tramway, though, Roy may avoid hopping on board his possible campaign. In a message to the QCT, Roy said, “Quebec [City] needs a structuring transport network. It needs to be done! For four years, we’ve been going around in circles, and the project isn’t moving forward. We need to get a project off the ground!”

A “structuring transport network” is assumed to mean a system of light rail cars running on tracks.

Another former Québec d’abord councillor, now sit- ting as an independent, is taking more of a wait-and-see stance regarding Hamad and the tramway. Louis Martin, who represents the Cap-Rouge–Laurentien district, told the QCT in a message, “I haven’t seen any official statements from Mr. Hamad on the tramway, so I can’t comment on that.” Martin is a first-term councillor, having won the seat vacated by Marie-Josée Savard, former mayor Régis Labeaume’s hand- picked successor for mayor leading the party he created. Savard, who chose not to have a running mate in her district, lost the 2021 mayoral race by a slim margin to current mayor Bruno Marchand, head of Québec Forte et Fière.

Martin left Québec d’abord last week following what he told the media were “decisions and directions taken by Québec d’abord in recent months, with which I was less comfortable. Preparations for the election campaign are progressing. I found it more elegant to withdraw before all the decisions, platforms and directions were made.”

With the departure of Martin and Roy, Québec d’abord is left with five councillors, including leader and mayoral candidate Claude Villeneuve. In the 2021 election, Savard’s team won 10 of the 21 council seats. Since then, three councillors defected to the governing QFF caucus.

Hamad approached Roy and Martin directly about running for his party should he decide to run for mayor. In a telephone interview with the QCT, Roy said she met with Hamad for a cof- fee at his invitation. She said, although she does not know how, Hamad had heard she was having misgivings about Québec d’abord.

“I was drifting apart” from the party, she said. “I was considering many things. I love my colleagues and I respect them. It has nothing to do with them.”

Roy said, “I’m very, very comfortable being an independent right now.”

Of Québec d’abord’s four remaining councillors, only Alicia Despins (Vanier-Duberger) has officially declared she is run- ning again for the party. As of this writing, Anne Corriveau, Véronique Dallaire and Patricia Boudreault-Bruyère had not stated their intention to seek another term.

Possible mayoral candidate Hamad slams cost of tramway Read More »

Sam Hamad recruiting candidates for City Hall campaign

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , , ,

Sam Hamad recruiting candidates for City Hall campaign

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

An effort to “poach” a candidate from another party is providing more proof former Liberal cabinet minister Sam Hamad is preparing to launch a campaign for the municipal election in November.

Last week, Québec D’abord, the official opposition at City Hall, announced via news release the expulsion of Isa- belle Roy, one of the party’s seven councillors, when it was learned Roy “was in discus- sions with Sam Hamad to run as a municipal councillor on his team.”

Leader and mayoral candidate Claude Villeneuve said in the release, “This situation is causing a breakdown in the bond of trust between Ms. Roy and Québec D’abord. As a re- sult, I have made the decision, with the support of our caucus, to exclude Ms. Roy from our team.”

According to a source familiar with the situation the QCT contacted, Villeneuve became aware of Hamad’s overtures to Roy when a journalist who had learned of the “discussions” called him to get his reaction. Villeneuve then called Roy to confirm her conversation with Hamad.

Roy was on vacation with her family during March Break last week; she told the QCT in a message that she was not ready to comment on the situation. She has represented the Robert-Giffard district since her election in 2021 under the banner of Marie-Josée Savard, the designated successor of longtime mayor Régis Labeaume, who narrowly lost that year’s mayoral race.

Before running for council, Roy had a long career in event organization, including the 400th anniversary celebrations of Quebec City in 2008.

Quebec’s director of elections, meanwhile, has con- firmed it has received a request to reserve the name of a new party, called Leadership Québec, in the name of temporary leader André Simard.

Simard confirmed to Radio- Canada the request had been submitted with the list of at least 100 prospective party members, the names of two leaders and an official representative.

Simard, who ran Hamad’s provincial election campaigns, said, “I won’t hide from you that we would like Sam to launch in the coming weeks, so we are preparing the ground.”

The party name – which could be adapted to include Hamad’s name – has not yet been posted on the Elections Québec website.

In a related development, the Journal de Québec reported last week that two internet domain names had been reserved: samhamad.ca and equipesamhamad.ca. When accessed, both sites are said to be “under construction.”

Reached at his office for comment, Hamad told the QCT he’d “call back later.”

Hamad, 67, was the Liberal MNA for the Quebec City riding of Louis-Hébert from 2003 to 2017. Hamad was a minister in several portfolios in the governments of Jean Charest and Philippe Couillard, including minister of transport and minister responsible for the Quebec capital region. He resigned from cabinet and left politics in April 2017.

Mayor Bruno Marchand said in media reports he was “very eager” for Hamad to jump in the race. He told the Journal de Québec, “It’s about time. It’s been a long time. It’s the longest striptease in history. I can’t wait. He’s been telling everyone for months that he’s going to do it.”

Marchand said a Hamad administration would be “a step backward.”

Sam Hamad recruiting candidates for City Hall campaign Read More »

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