Harel not worried about loss of 3 Vision Montreal candidates
Mayoral candidate Louise Harel said she's not worried about people leaving her party even though three high-profile members of Vision Montreal quit this week.
Former Vision Montreal leader François Purcell announced Thursday afternoon he’ll join Mayor Gérald Tremblay’s Union Montreal party.
Ville-Marie Councillor Karim Boulos said Thursday morning he's leaving Vision Montreal to run as an independent in this fall's municipal election. And on Monday, Vision Montreal’s vice-president, Oksana Kaluzny, quit the party as well.
The resignations came after party leader Benoit Labonté decided not to run for mayor and turned the candidacy over to Harel, a former Parti Québécois cabinet minister. Party members accused Labonté of not consulting with them about his choice of mayoral candidate.
All three politicians have said they have problems with Harel’s leadership. They said her sovereigntist past and her role in forcing municipal mergers has made her a divisive figure.
"A lot of people are saying the same things: she’s never worked at a municipal level; she created this monster known as the agglomeration; and her stance on sovereignty and so on," Boulos said. "But at the end of the day, my people want to make sure that their voice is heard like it has been over the last four years."
Kaluzny also expressed skepticism at Harel's ability to represent a diversity of views.
"We are of different views," she said. "She's uni-dimensional, and mine are multicultural ... I couldn’t picture myself working with her."
Kaluzny said she has not decided yet whether or not she will join Tremblay's Union Montreal party.
Harel refuted claims she’s hard to work with and said it’s time to break down barriers in Montreal between Anglophones and Francophones.
She said Montreal’s diversity is its greatest strength and she promised that future electoral candidates — to be announced in the coming weeks — would demonstrate that diversity.
Her choice of candidate for the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough, announced Thursday afternoon, didn’t exactly do that. Bloc Québécois MP Réal Ménard will be running for the spot of mayor in the east-end borough.
As for the three councillors who left her party, Harel said they left for various reasons, not just because of her. She said she’s still the best alternative to Tremblay, whose party has been weighed down by ethics scandals in recent months.