Former opponent and former mayoral candidate Jean-François Gosselin, who has newly joined the Quebec mayor’s party, does not hide his desire to run for councilor in Beauport in 2025. He also wants Bruno Marchand to run for mayor again in two years.
• Also read: Quebec City: Marchand becomes majority on city council
“Today I want to represent myself [pour Québec Forte et Fière (QFF), parti politique du maire] in two years as a local councilor. The town hall is over. I lost two elections, it’s over,” Mr. Gosselin said.
If he were to run again, would he want party leader Bruno Marchand to stay? “Sure. I don’t see any other options […] It will be his decision. I watch him work. He works hard […] If I didn’t believe in the boss, in the leader, I wouldn’t have joined the team. I won’t be there,” he added.
On Thursday, Mr. Gosselin revealed an open secret by formalizing his move to the QFF. Even though he ran for mayor against Bruno Marchand in 2021, he assured that he always viewed the latter as an “opponent” and not an “enemy”. Aside from the streetcar issue, he promised to largely share his former rival’s vision for the community.
And then the tram?
The other independent consultant, Bianca Dussault, also made the jump. This enabled Mayor Marchand to achieve a majority on the municipal council for the first time since his election almost two years ago.
The two new QFF elected officials have committed to voting in favor of all tram-related summaries, despite their previous opposition to the megaproject. To be “pragmatic,” they said they would prefer to “improve things within a faction” rather than “whine” through systematic resistance.
They swear that this is how they serve their respective constituents, since the tram will be built anyway. They argued that the new Quebec Northern Crown Mobility Committee, co-chaired by Mr. Gosselin, would allow them to put forward their ideas.
Board reshuffle
In addition to the arrival of these two former independent elected officials, Mayor Marchand has made some changes to his Executive Committee, a sort of municipal “Council of Ministers.”
In this game of musical chairs, note that elected official Maude Mercier Larouche no longer directly holds the tram file, although she oversees the collective transport and major projects file. His colleague Claude Lavoie is now responsible for “relations with citizens” in connection with the tram, but is moving from full to associate member within the management team.
What councilors from the Mayor’s Party said:
- “The funny thing is that the press conference [de ralliement au maire] took place on Thursday at the Maizerets estate. This is the exact location where my wife and I took our wedding photos 20 years ago. We were in the same idyllic surroundings and the weather was beautiful too. Yesterday [jeudi]“It was a political marriage,” said Jean-François Gosselin.
- “The tram will never go through Val-Bélair. There I will concentrate on the issues in my district, such as public transport and social housing,” says Bianca Dussault.
- “I am very grateful for the trust the mayor has placed in me by entrusting me with major projects. “We are at a crossroads both in terms of the development of the vision of the East and in terms of industrial parks,” said Maude Mercier Larouche.
- “Be an associate member [au comité exécutif] will also allow me to gain time to really devote myself to relations with citizens on the tram issue,” Claude Lavoie.
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