MONTREAL - The political battle for the multicultural federal riding of Outremont is going to have a decidedly international flavour to it.
A Conservative party official said Tuesday that the party will run former diplomat Gilles Duguay in the Montreal riding.
Duguay, a lawyer by trade who has served Canada in various capacities across the globe, is to be formally introduced at a news conference at Universite de Montreal on Wednesday morning.
Duguay will challenge Jocelyn Coulon, a former journalist and currently a professor at Universite de Montreal, who is a regular on Quebec television as a commentator on international events.
Former Quebec Liberal environment minister Thomas Mulcair will run for the New Democratic Party. The Bloc Quebecois will be represented by Jean-Paul Gilson.
The riding has been in Liberal hands for years.
The Conservative party's Outremont riding president said Duguay will be a good match for Coulon on the international affairs front.
"His resume is quite impressive and he could be a great counterpart in his knowledge of foreign policy to Coulon,'' said Marc Rousseau said, adding the party has been courting Duguay for months.
"We're quite happy to have him as our candidate,'' Rousseau said.
The Montreal-born Duguay is a career diplomat who has served as the Canadian ambassador in Morocco, Cameroon, Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova.
Most recently, Duguay served as the Canadian representative at the International Civil Aviation Organization. He has also worked for Power Corp., the Montreal-based holding company.
Coulon was introduced last week by Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and immediately came under fire from B'nai Brith Canada. The Jewish organization said in a news release that Coulon has an anti-Israel bias that is "out of step with current Liberal policy.''
Coulon has spent his first days in politics defending himself and the opinion pieces he has penned in the past, saying that he supports healthy debate and is not anti-Israel. He has said he's interested in the foreign affairs.
The multicultural riding is home to some of a significant number of Montreal's Jewish population and the majority of the Hasidic Jews in the city.
The Outremont riding has been vacant since former Liberal transport minister Jean Lapierre quit politics in January to return to a career in media.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has until Saturday to announce a date for the byelection.
Elections Canada says that three other federal ridings are vacant, including another in Quebec.
Harper has until Aug. 25 to announce a byelection in St-Hyacinthe-Bagot, where Bloc Quebecois MP Yvan Loubier resigned to run provincially for the Parti Quebecois.
There are also vacancies in Toronto Centre and Willowdale ridings in Ontario, both formerly held by the Liberals. But Harper has until Dec. 30 and Jan.9, 2008, respectively, to call byelections in those ridings.
