Old Brewery Mission President and CEO James Hughes will run with the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) in the upcoming fall election, a highly-placed source confirmed to CTV News. Liberal Leader Charles Milliard is expected to make the announcement on Thursday afternoon. The longtime advocate for Montreal’s homeless population is slated to run in the riding of Vaudreuil, replacing Marie-Claude Nichols, who has represented the area since 2014. A lawyer by training, Hughes previously led the Old Brewery Mission from 2004 to 2008 before departing to work for the Department of Social Development at the Government of New Brunswick. He later returned to Montreal to serve as president of the Graham Boeckh Foundation and executive lead and senior fellow at the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation before once more taking the helm at the Old Brewery Mission in 2020. Hughes previously tried his hand at federal politics, running with the New Democratic Party (NDP) in 2015 in the riding of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount. He lost to Liberal incumbent Marc Garneau. Hughes currently co-hosts Difference Makers, a weekend radio show with Welcome Hall Mission CEO and President Sam Watts on CJAD 800. The Quebec election is set for Oct. 5. CJAD 800 and CTV News are owned by Bell Media, which is a subsidiary of BCE Inc.
