Connect the dots

Jennifer Ditchburn lays out a web of political coincidence.

Both Housakos and Pentefountas worked within the Action Democratique du Quebec — Pentefountas was party president while Housakos oversaw the financing wing … Another ADQ associate, former St-Eustache, Que. mayor Claude Carignan, was named to the Senate less than a year after Housakos reached the red chamber himself … former Montreal city councillor Marcel Tremblay was named a citizenship judge in 2010. Housakos delivered the farewell speech when Tremblay left municipal office last summer. Housakos and Soudas were advisers to Tremblay’s brother, Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay, a decade ago …

Housakos’ former business partner Nicholas Katalifos, a Montreal-area school principal, was named a chairperson on the Employment Insurance Board of Referees in 2009 …  friend and business associate, Montreal lawyer Jean-Martin Masse, was appointed to the board of Via Rail after Housakos left the same post and was named to the Senate in late 2008 … Former Mulroney-era cabinet minister Gerry Weiner, for whom Housakos worked as a young political staffer, was named by the government to the board of the Old Port of Montreal Corp. last summer.