Claude Villeneuve

Woo and Weiser out as candidates; poll gives Marchand lead

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , , , , , , , , ,

Woo and Weiser out as candidates; poll gives Marchand lead

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Week two of the Quebec City campaign featured the exit of prominent candidates for two of the main parties running for City Hall, an encouraging poll for Mayor Bruno Marchand, and an original “fourth link” idea from a mayoral candidate.

David Weiser, a prize catch for Marchand’s Québec Forte et Fière (QFF) party when the tech pioneer, nonprofit founder and interfaith relations advocate joined his administration, was removed from the QFF slate over a broken “bond of trust.”

Marchand opted to remove Weiser from his re-election bid in the Plateau district following a report in the Journal de Québec that Revenu Québec had registered a legal hypothec (a form of legal mortgage) on his residence over a tax dispute covering the years 2012 to 2015.

The Journal also reported Weiser had declared personal bankruptcy that was registered in 2021, the year he became a city councillor.

In a statement, Marchand said, “I had a discussion with David … at the end of which I decided to withdraw his candidacy for QFF in the Plateau district. His explanation of the facts brought to my attention has broken our bond of trust.”

Weiser told Radio-Canada he had explained his situation to Marie-Josée Savard, the leader of the party he ran for in the 2021 election, but acknowledged that he did not disclose it to Marchand or his party after he crossed the floor in February 2022.

“I think I was treated unfairly,” he said. “There is an outstanding debt to Revenu Québec, but the legal hypothec is still in effect.”

Weiser said, as is required of elected officials, he submitted his notices of tax assessment to the party every year. Weiser had not responded to the QCT’s request for an interview by press time. QFF has until Oct. 3 to find a replacement candidate in the district.

Sam Hamad’s Leadership Québec had to scramble to find a last-minute candidate as a result of the withdrawal from the race of Napoléon Woo, the party’s purported star candidate in Saint-Roch– Saint-Sauveur. Shortly before this newspaper went to press, on Sept. 29, Radio-Canada reported that Hamad had selected social worker Pascale Houle, who does not live in the district, to represent the party there.

Woo, owner of a local restaurant, exited the team following controversial remarks he made at his candidacy announcement about homelessness in Saint-Roch.

Québec d’Abord, meanwhile, continues to face a challenge in finding candidates for all 21 seats on council with the Oct. 3 deadline looming. As of this writing, the party that evolved from former mayor Régis Labeaume’s organization is still short six candidates. Leader Claude Villeneuve is running for mayor but also for re-election in his Maizerets-Lairet district.

A lack of candidates is not Villeneuve’s only challenge. A Léger poll for the Journal de Québec placed the Opposition leader a distant fourth in the race for mayor, at seven per cent, slightly behind Stéphane Lachance of the upstart right-wing Respect Citoyens party.

The poll found Marchand with a significant but not commanding lead over Hamad, a former provincial Liberal cabinet minister and MNA for Louis-Hébert. Marchand polled 27 per cent in the field of seven candidates, with Hamad at 20 per cent, followed by Lachance and Villeneuve. Transition Québec Leader Jackie Smith had three per cent, and former city councillor and Opposition leader Anne Guérette had one per cent.

The poll also identified the cost of housing as the most important issue in the election, at 38 per cent. The second greatest preoccupation of potential voters was homelessness at 29 per cent. Just behind were public transit at 28 per cent, traffic congestion at 27 per cent, and infrastructure projects like the “third link” at 24 per cent.

On that latter topic, Guérette, who came third in the race

for mayor in 2017 as leader of the now-defunct Démocratie Québec party, has proposed a plan for a “fourth link” between Quebec City and Lévis.

Guérette, an architect and former councillor for Cap-aux-Diamants, is proposing a bridge be built exclusively for public transit in addition to one for car and truck traffic.

In a slick video on her campaign Facebook page, Guérette, a radio commentator and opponent of the tramway in its current configuration, said the public transit bridge, situated to complete a transit loop with a third link, should be built first. She said it could be built with efficient and inexpensive technology for $2.2 billion within four years.

Guérette and her running mate Frédéric Imbeault are seeking election in the Cap-Rouge–Laurentien district under the Parti du Monde banner. As of this writing, the party has not announced any other city council candidates.

Woo and Weiser out as candidates; poll gives Marchand lead Read More »

And they’re off! City Hall campaign begins with feud between Hamad and Villeneuve

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And they’re off! City Hall campaign begins with feud between Hamad and Villeneuve

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

The signs are going up, candidates are filing their papers and voters are being asked to reflect and choose who they want to run their towns and cities.

Quebec City, along with some 1,100 other municipalities in the province, is now engaged in an election campaign that will culminate with the election of new civic representatives on Nov. 2.

So far six candidates have declared themselves in the running for mayor: incumbent Bruno Marchand of Québec Forte et Fière; Claude Villeneuve, leader of Québec d’Abord and councillor for Maizerets-Lairet; Jackie Smith, leader of Transition Québec and councillor for Limoilou; Sam Hamad, leader of Leadership Quebec and a former provincial Liberal cabinet minister and MNA for Louis-Hébert; Stéphane Lachance, entrepreneur and leader of Respect Citoyens; and Anne Guérette, an architect, former city councillor and past mayoral candidate, who is running as an independent although she has registered a party name, Parti du monde.

Even before the 45-day campaign began officially on Sept. 19, two candidates were engaged in a skirmish of personal attacks. Villeneuve accused Hamad of intimidation for allegedly saying to him at an event in April, “Be careful with your criticism of me, because you have two beautiful little girls.”

Villeneuve said Hamad repeated the comment at another event. There were no witnesses at either occasion to corroborate Villeneuve’s claim. Hamad asked Villeneuve to withdraw the accusation, which he said amounted to defamation.

It was not the only accusation of intimidation aimed at Hamad last week. Karine Gagnon, the veteran Journal de Québec reporter and municipal affairs columnist, wrote a piece in which she said Hamad “has taken the liberty, during and outside of his press briefings, of attacking my integrity and my reputation, as well as those of the Journal de Québec.”

In another incident in a rocky start to his campaign, Hamad’s candidate in the Saint-Roch–Saint-Sauveur district, restaurant owner Napoléon Woo, went on a rant against the problem of home- lessness in the district.

“Homelessness should be a period of transition, not a culture where you eat for free, you get free housing, you get free clothes … No one died of cold or hunger,” Woo said, as Hamad listened uneasily and then intervened. (Editors’ note: Napoléon Woo is no longer the party’s candidate in Saint-Roch-Saint-Sauveur. On the afternoon of Sept. 22, as this newspaper went to press, Hamad announced that the party had “put an end to” his candidacy.)

On a more positive note for Leadership Québec, the party now has city council candidates in 20 of the 21 districts. A last-minute change saw Patrick Paquet, most recently the non-elected leader of the now-defunct Équipe Priorité Québec (EPQ) party, become the party’s candidate in the Les Saules- Les-Méandres district after Lydie Pincemin withdrew for health reasons. As of this writing, the party has a full slate of candidates, except for Woo’s recently vacated district of Saint-Roch-Saint-Sauveur.

The only other established party not to have a full slate is Villeneuve’s Québec d’Abord, which, as of this writing, was still short six candidates.

Respect Citoyens, meanwhile, has a full slate for its first run at City Hall, including Eric Ralph Mercier, former ÉPQ councillor, former Liberal MNA for Charlesbourg and son of longtime Charlesbourg mayor Ralph Mercier. He’s running in the Des Monts district.

Another notable recruit for the party is Anne-Laurence Harvey in the Loretteville– Les-Châtels district. Harvey is the daughter of Luc Harvey, the former Conservative MP for Louis-Hébert. She has a claim to fame in being the first girl to score a touchdown as a quarterback when she played for the St. Patrick’s High School Fighting Irish football team.

With the election campaign just underway, a poll in Le Soleil had some good and some worrisome news for Marchand and his bid for a second term. The survey by the SOM firm found 51 per cent of respondents were satisfied with his work as mayor, the highest level in two years and a major uptick since a low of 36 per cent two years ago.

However, in a somewhat counterintuitive finding, 50 per cent of those polled felt it was time for a change at City Hall. The poll also found Marchand’s approval rating is less positive in the suburbs, particularly in Charlesbourg, Beauport and La Haute-Saint-Charles.

In the 2021 election, QFF won four of its six seats in downtown districts.

It was not by coincidence, then, that Marchand officially launched his campaign Sept. 19 at a historic site in Charlesbourg.

“We’ve achieved a lot in four years, and there’s still a lot to do. There’s momentum in Quebec City, and we want it to continue. We’re not going to take anything for granted,” Marchand said.

In 2021, Marchand beat Marie-Josée Savard, the inheritor of former mayor Régis Labeaume’s party which later became Québec d’Abord, by 834 votes.

With files from QCT staff

And they’re off! City Hall campaign begins with feud between Hamad and Villeneuve Read More »

Villeneuve launches campaign; ‘Happy to be underdog’

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

Villeneuve launches campaign; ‘Happy to be underdog’

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Although he doesn’t have all of his candidates yet and the official start of the municipal election season is still two weeks away, Québec d’Abord Leader Claude Villeneuve launched his City Hall campaign Sept. 4.

“Why not?” he said. when asked by reporters. “I’m ready.” His launch, held on the sunny terrasse of a brewpub in Montcalm, included the unveiling of a detailed platform of policies to be put into place over a three-term period, ending in 2037.
Under the tagline “Près de vous” (“Close to you”), Villeneuve explained the platform has three principles: “Simplify services to make them more accessible, bring people together behind major projects, and invest in the future to improve everyday life today.”

Some of the major planks: Abolish the “welcome tax” for the purchase of a first home, create a major sports centre in Parc Victoria, reduce the vehicle registration tax to $30 from $60, build 60,000 new housing units by 2037, and create a major event in partnership with Wendake to mark the 500th anniversary of French explorer Jacques Cartier’s visit to Quebec in 1535.

With polls showing him far behind incumbent Mayor Bruno Marchand of Québec Forte et Fière and Leadership Québec’s Sam Hamad, a former provincial Liberal minister, Villeneuve said he has “a lot of work to do” to make himself known.

Villeneuve leads the rem- nants of the party that ruled Quebec City from 2008 to 2021 under then-mayor Régis Labeaume. The party’s leader in the 2021 election, Marie-Josée Savard, lost the mayoralty to Marchand by 834 votes.

Her party, though, elected 10 councillors and formed the official Opposition. Of those 10 councillors, there are now only two – Villeneuve, in the Maizerets-Lairet district, and Véronique Dallaire in Les Saules-Les Méandres. The others chose not to run again or defected to Marchand’s party.

Québec d’Abord, as of this writing, has recruited only 10 of the 21 candidates for a full slate. Villeneuve hinted at the press conference there were even some candidates yet to be announced in the room.

Villeneuve said, “I think I’m the second choice of many people, if not most people in the city” and that he doesn’t “have much further to go to become the first choice.”

He said he’s been talking to people who think Marchand “does not deserve a second mandate” and that Hamad “is not a serious candidate.”

Asked in English how it feels to be the underdog in the mayoral race, Villeneuve said, “I like to be the underdog. It’s a good story to tell.”

He said, “I’m ready to be mayor. I’m pretty confident, but it will be tough, and it should be tough to become mayor of Quebec. You have to earn it.”

According to his Québec d’Abord bio, prior to becoming a city councillor in 2021, Villeneuve “served as an adviser and speechwriter to Premier Pauline Marois. He then made a name for himself in Quebec City’s media landscape as a columnist for the Journal de Québec.”

Villeneuve also founded Limoilou-based AV3 – Collaboratoire, a shared workspace that supports local startups.

Originally from Métabetchouan, in Lac-Saint-Jean, Villeneuve came to Quebec City in 2002 to study law and economics.

Villeneuve launches campaign; ‘Happy to be underdog’ Read More »

Hamad recruits two sitting councillors for City Hall team

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Hamad recruits two sitting councillors for City Hall team

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

Mayoral candidate Sam Hamad now has two sitting municipal councillors on his own slate of candidates.

Isabelle Roy, councillor for the Robert-Giffard district in Beauport, and Louis Martin, councillor for Cap-Rouge–Laurentien and former speaker of the city council, will run under Hamad’s Leadership Québec banner.

Both were councillors for the opposition Québec d’abord party, but in March leader Claude Villeneuve booted Roy from the caucus when reports surfaced she had talked to Hamad about joining his party. Martin, who had also had discussions with Hamad, quit the party on his own shortly afterwards.

As members of Québec d’abord, both councillors supported the tramway project, an initiative of the previous administration of Régis Labeaume. Hamad opposes the project in its current concept as a costly system citizens do not want.

Both councillors, when the QCT contacted them, offered explanations for the change of position. Roy said, “I don’t think I’ve been the biggest cheerleader for the tramway project in the last three years. The abandonment of the D’Estimauville branch of the tramway was the breaking point for my support.”

She said, “The citizens of Quebec deserve efficient mobility across the entire territory, and the project Mr. Hamad will be putting forward is a step in that very direction.”

Martin said, “I’ve always been in favour of improving public transit in the city. It does not matter what vehicle – tramway, subway, bus – we need more transit, quickly. I saw Mr. Hamad’s proposal and I am convinced that it’s the best project to improve public transit in the city, quickly, for all neighbourhoods, at a price we can afford.”

Martin said Hamad plans to unveil his alternative transit plan as early as this week.

As far as why she joined Hamad’s team, Roy said the former provincial Liberal MNA and minister “is an authentic leader, capable of bringing people together and moving major issues forward by rallying the right people around the table.”

The addition of Roy and Martin now gives Leadership Québec seven confirmed candidates so far for the 21 districts. Hamad does not plan to run for a council seat as some mayoral candidates have chosen to do.

Québec d’abord now has only two sitting councillors who plan to run again, Patricia Boudreault-Bruyère in Neufchâtel–Lebourgneuf and Véronique Dallaire in Saules–Les Méandres. Longtime councillor Anne Corriveau announced earlier this month she does not plan to run again in her Pointe- de-Sainte-Foy district.

Besides the two incumbents, the other Québec d’abord candidates are Rosie-Anne R. Vallières in Vanier-Duberger, a seat being vacated by Alicia Despins, and Sophie Gosselin in Lac-Saint-Charles–Saint-Émile. Villeneuve, who is running for mayor for the first time, is the councillor for Maizerets-Lairet.

The large field of mayoral candidates became even larger over the weekend when former City Hall opposition leader and mayoral candidate Anne Guérette announced she was running for mayor again under the banner of the newly created Parti du Monde – Équipe Anne Guérette. Since stepping down as leader of the now-defunct Démocratie Québec party in 2017, Guérette, an architect, has become a vocal opponent of the tramway project. She joins incumbent mayor Bruno Marchand, Villeneuve, Hamad, Transition Québec leader Jackie Smith and Respect Citoyens leader Stéphane Lachance on the lengthening list of candidates. Municipal elections will be held across Quebec on Nov. 2.

With files from Ruby Pratka, LJI reporter

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Claude Villeneuve runs for mayor, wants city ‘that’s easier to live in’

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

Claude Villeneuve runs for mayor, wants city ‘that’s easier to live in’

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

There are officially three candidates in the race for mayor of Quebec City. Claude Villeneuve, leader of the Québec d’Abord official Opposition party, confirmed he is running, after earlier suggesting he might pass for family reasons.

Villeneuve, 42, made the announcement Jan. 22 at the party’s offices in the Saint-Sauveur district, in the company of Québec d’Abord’s six elected councillors.

Mayor Bruno Marchand, head of Quebec Forte et Fière, and Transition Québec and Limoilou district councillor Jackie Smith have stated they plan to run again for mayor.

Villeneuve, the first-term councillor for the Maizerets-Lairet district, said in remarks to reporters, “I am taking another step forward, because I think we can do more. The citizens of Quebec want new leadership for our city. A mayor who unites, rather than divides. Who understands that leading a city means reconciling interests, rather than imposing one’s own preferences.”

Villeneuve, the father of two young girls with his wife Catherine Gauthier, said, “It’s been my dream to be mayor,” but he needed the blessing of his family to take the plunge.

Asked, in English, what he told his wife to get her support, Villeneuve said, “I love my wife, and I think that she loves me too. She loves me better when I have great projects than when I’m at home and angry,” adding jokingly, “Maybe she just wants me out of the house.”

He said both he and his wife are passionate about politics.  “I think I am a better man, a better father and will be a bet- ter mayor with her by my side.”

Villeneuve took a shot at another potential mayoral rival, former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister Sam Hamad, who has publicly said he is considering running. “I don’t want to become mayor because I’m bored in retirement and I’m looking for a project to keep me unbored.”

Villeneuve made a plea for “a city that’s easier to live in,” asking, “Why are bike paths cleared of snow better than streets or sidewalks? Why is it so difficult to get swimming lessons for children? Why is it so long and especially so complex to obtain a permit to change a door?”

Originally from Métabetchouan in the Lac-Saint-Jean region, Villeneuve was a speechwriter for Parti Québécois premier Pauline Marois. He came to Quebec City in 2004 to study law and economics. He has been a political commentator in various media outlets in the city and been involved in community organizations and businesses in Limoilou.

He won his municipal seat handily in 2021, in a district held by former mayor Régis Labeaume’s party. When the party’s mayoral candidate, Marie-Josée Savard, lost the race to Marchand by a handful of votes, the party’s 10 elected councillors chose Villeneuve to be leader of the Opposition at City Hall.

Three of the party’s coun- cillors subsequently joined Marchand’s party, which had elected seven councillors.

Villeneuve said he plans to have a running mate for his council seat, so that in the event he loses the race for mayor, he would still have a seat on council, assuming the  party wins the district.

As for the tramway project, which has dominated municipal politics for years, Villeneuve, who supports the venture, said he doesn’t expect it will become a big issue in the election campaign, which officially begins in September with the vote on Nov. 2.

Claude Villeneuve runs for mayor, wants city ‘that’s easier to live in’ Read More »

Villeneuve blasts ‘frivolous’ spending on covered rinks

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

Villeneuve blasts ‘frivolous’ spending on covered rinks

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

The Official Opposition leader at City Hall is criticizing Mayor Bruno Marchand’s administration for tapping into a climate change reserve fund to build refrigerated skating rinks.

The budget earmarks $45 million from the fund to build the rinks, as well as a project to prevent flooding on the Lorette River.

Coun. Claude Villeneuve, leader of Québec d’Abord, said in a post-budget meeting with reporters, “We are using the climate reserve [fund] for leisure investments. It seems frivolous to us. It is cynical. It is populist. It is using funds that we have to deal with an emergency.”

Limoilou councillor and Transition Québec Leader Jackie Smith also gave the thumbs-down to the use of the climate funds to build a rink. She said she was “really disappointed that we’re going to withdraw money to use the climate fund for skating rinks. From the beginning, I was skeptical about this fund because it wasn’t well put together when it was announced.”

Marchand defended the expenditure on the rinks, which would extend the skating season from October to May, as a concrete adaptation to climate change.

“We can’t wait until 2028, 2030, 2032 to say, ‘Well, we will have a well-stocked fund, but in the meantime, we will have experienced negative effects. So, we want to accelerate change.”

Patrick Paquet, leader of the other opposition party, Équipe Priorité Québec, attacked the city’s finances, saying without the increase in vehicle registration fees bringing $18 million, the “real tax increase” would be 5.4 per cent, not 2.9 per cent.

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