Rémi Lebeuf

By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban

The riding includes Outremont itself, the Mile End and the eastern part of Côte des Neiges. Unlike many other Montreal-island ridings, Outremont has been represented by a variety of parties. Tory Jean-Pierre Hogue won it during the Mulroney era. The NDP’s Thomas Mulcair won in 2007 and held the riding until he retired from politics in 2018. The Liberals then reclaimed the riding when Rachel Bendayan won a by-election earlier in 2019, and she won the 2021 general election with 44.36 percent of the vote.

Liberal

Rachel Bendayan, most recently appointed Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship by Prime Minister Mark Carney, was first elected in 2019 and re-elected in 2021. She was previously Minister of Official Languages and Associate Minister of Public Safety, as well as Parliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance, and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade. Before entering politics, Bendayan was a lawyer with Norton Rose Fulbright in the fields of litigation and international arbitration, specializing in international trade law. She taught at the Faculty of Law of the Université de Montréal.

Conservative

Ronan Reich studied finance and information technology at Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf and HEC Montreal, and previously ran for the Conservatives in the Laurier–Sainte-Marie riding. Reich says his experience equips him “with the skills needed to understand the economic challenges of our country.” He adds that “my family has lived in this riding since my ancestors came to Canada in search of the Canadian promise.” The candidate also says that the Liberal government “with its rising taxes and capital gains tax that discourages investment, is putting our collective future at risk. I want to offer all citizens, young and old, the opportunity to build a better future for themselves, their children, and their grandchildren.”

NDP

Ève Péclet, who ran for the NDP in Outremont in 2021, was previously the party’s MP representing the La Pointe-de-l’Île riding from 2011 to 2015. The candidate says she is focused on “the values of justice, inclusion and equality.” While in Parliament, she sat on the Human Rights Subcommittee, the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Justice Committee of the Parliament of Canada. She worked on such issues as the use of rape as a weapon of war in armed conflict zones, respect for human rights by Canadian companies abroad, and access to justice. Outside politics, she is a lawyer, and has worked with domestic and sexual violence victims. Nowadays, she works at the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse, handling discrimination and racial profiling cases. She also works with with Pro Bono Students Canada and the YWCA Legal Clinic.

Bloc Québécois

Rémi Lebeuf has been involved in numerous community and activist organizations, joined the Bloc Québécois Youth Forum in 2019 and is its Vice-President. He has a Master’s degree in Public and International Affairs from the Université de Montréal, and worked for MP Gabriel Ste-Marie in Joliette. Lebeuf joined the BQ parliamentary team as parliamentary assistant to MP Julie Vignola. He says that this election “will be crucial for the future of Quebec, in the face of the two major Canadian parties worn and disconnected from our local realities.”

Green Party

Jonathan Pedneault is co-leader of the Green Party with Elizabeth May, and it has been reported that he is taking on “singular leadership roles” for the party and representing the Green Party at debates. He says that “those in power who could make a difference continue to let us down. Canadians deserve a real alternative—one that defends our values and safeguards the future we all want for our country.’” As a journalist, he has reported from Somalia, Yemen, Ethiopia, Egypt, Libya and Israel. He has recently condemned Israel for its actions during the war with Hamas, posting: “Words of condemnation on social media fail to capture how despicable, criminal and reprehensible Israel’s conduct is. Human rights abusers deserve sanctions, condemnation and jail. Not accolades, excuses and normalization.”