Sam Hamad

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.