OTTAWA – Veteran MP Denis Coderre won’t be running for the federal Liberal leadership.
But he’s sending a strong signal that he will run for mayor of Montreal instead.
Coderre says he intends to stay on as the MP for the Montreal riding of Bourassa until a new Liberal leader is chosen in April.
That means the Liberals won’t have to worry about fighting a byelection any time soon in a province where the party is hanging on by its fingernails.
Polls suggest the party could do much better in Quebec and elsewhere if leadership front-runner Justin Trudeau was at the helm.
Coderre says he’s received lots of encouragement to run for mayor in the midst of the corruption scandal that has rocked the city’s municipal government but he insists he hasn’t reached a decision yet.
