Yahoo Finance Mouvement Montréal loses 2 more candidates ahead of municipal election
Balarama Holness' Mouvement Montréal has lost another two candidates ahead of the Nov. 7 municipal election.
Elections Montreal announced the withdrawal of Hochelaga district candidate Jean-Philippe Martin and Maisonneuve-Longue-Pointe district candidate Sylvain Medzalabenleth, both running for councillor positions, on Saturday morning.
The two candidates were originally slated to run with the Ralliement pour Montréal party, which merged with Mouvement last month.
The dropouts are the latest in a string of candidates who have abandoned the Mouvement party in recent weeks.
The merger of the parties created tension among members of both sides, due to the parties' opposing stances on the protection of the French language and the funding of the police service.
Both Martin and Medzalabenleth told Radio-Canada they would not make any comments ahead of election day.
Holness has lost six candidates since the election campaign began.
This week, former Ralliement leader Marc-Antoine Desjardins pulled out of the race for mayor of Outremont, saying he was "completely dissociating" himself from Holness' remarks made on the French language.
Holness has said if he's elected mayor, he will hold a one-year public consultation on the use of English and French in public and private institutions, followed by a referendum on the status of Montreal as a bilingual city.
As of Oct. 1, Mouvement had 74 candidates running. Three weeks later, the party has only 68, though it does have a candidate up for election in each of the city's 19 districts.
No other Montreal party has lost a candidate since Oct. 1.
