(Ottawa) “I have no doubt that our riding (Mount Royal) will turn blue”: the mayor of Hampstead, Jeremy Levi, made this prediction Tuesday evening.
Blue as in conservative blue, confirms the municipal representative on the other end of the phone on Wednesday. The day before, he made his prediction by relaying a video shot during a Pierre Poilievre rally in a synagogue in the constituency.
The images published by Anthony Koch, a former close associate of the Conservative leader, were accompanied by the following comment: “Hey, Anthony Housefather, look at the crowd led by Pierre Poilievre in your riding tonight! More than 1400 people are present! It makes a man think! “.
Mayor Levi did not attend the show of force on Tuesday evening – the appearance of the conservative leader in the courtyard of the liberal MP was a “coincidence”, and not linked to the current context, it was indicated in her entourage.
But it promises to be part of the constant struggle that looms on the horizon. “The electoral campaign on the federal scene, if it takes place in October 2025, will be almost at the same time as the municipal campaign. I’m going to campaign more federally than for myself,” he promises in an interview.
The town of Hampstead is part of the electoral district of Mount Royal, where Anthony Housefather was elected under the Liberal banner in 2015, 2019 and 2021. The latest news was that he was to run for a fourth term with the Reds, according to a list provided by the Liberal Party on March 12.
This was before the adoption, a little over two weeks ago, of a New Democratic motion concerning Israel in the House of Commons. A position which greatly displeased the MP, and which plunged him into reflection on his future within the liberal ranks.
Anthony Housefather ripped
“When the members of my party stood up to give a standing ovation to Heather McPherson (the elected official who sponsored the motion) and the NDP, I began to wonder if I was in the right place,” said Anthony Housefather in press scrum the day after the vote.
Two days later, he went a little further in an interview with the Montreal English-language radio station CJAD by presenting himself as a centrist. “I am socially liberal and fiscally conservative,” he declared on the air last Wednesday.
“I never agree with a party all the time,” continued the man who was mayor of Côte-Saint-Luc before making the jump to the federal scene. He won his bet on the first try in the riding which has been red since 1940, and which former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau represented.
MP Housefather wrote to The Press that he would “probably” communicate the fruit of his reflection before the return of the House of Commons on April 8. Until then, he plans to take the pulse of the people in his riding.
The mayor of Hampstead says he has had “several” exchanges with his federal MP since the famous vote on the NDP motion. He obviously refuses to reveal its content, contenting himself with asserting that his preference is to see Anthony Housefather cross the aisle to swell the conservative ranks.
reference: www.lapresse.ca