Ensemble Montreal has chosen its new leader. It is finally the Norman-McLaren district councilor, Aref Salem, who will succeed Lionel Perez as interim leader of the official opposition. He will be in post for “at least three years”.
“We have a lot of challenges ahead of us. We have a party to rebuild, ”explained Mr. Salem during a brief press scrum held in front of the Lucien-Saulnier building at the start of the day on Tuesday. It was a caucus vote held the day before that resulted in his appointment.
Mr. Salem promised to “reach out to the current administration” of Valerie Plante in the interest of Montrealers, however swearing to “follow” it on several issues, including the hiring of 250 additional police officers and the promise of Projet Montréal not to increase taxes above 2%.
“I am the interim chef. We will therefore prepare a next leader for the next election, prepare the ground so that in 2025, there will be a leader who will lead us to the election ”, also raised the elected official.
Municipal councilor in the Saint-Laurent borough since 2009, Aref Salem already has a long track record in municipal politics. He has been vice-president of the Commission on Transport and Public Works since 2017, in addition to being involved in several civil society organizations.
It all comes a few days after the defeated mayoral candidate, Denis Coderre, announced that he was leaving politics, at the same time giving up the post of leader of the opposition. For his part, Lionel Perez lost his bet in the town hall of Côte-des-Neiges – Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, thus ejecting him from political life.
However, the party announced Thursday that it will request a judicial recount in this district, the most populous on the island, saying it had found “errors” in the counting of ballots.
A priori, however, it is the nurse by profession Gracia Kasoki Katahwa who won by just over 200 votes.