When Micheline Montreuil was dumped as a candidate, she made it clear that the NDP dropped her because of her sexual identity.  She even suggested legal action.

None of that has changed in a recent interview given by Micheline Montreuil to Xtra:

A Quebec City trans activist and lawyer says the NDP dumped her from her candidacy in a federal Quebec City riding because of her gender identity.

"I was a very attractive candidate when I was chosen to run for the NDP but now, nine months later, it seems I have lost all of my sex appeal," Micheline Anne Montreuil told Xtra.

Montreuil, who has been involved with the NDP on and off since the late 1970s, says Raymond Guardia, cochair of the party's Quebec electoral planning committee, contacted her with a list of reasons for dumping her that included a desire by potential candidates in other ridings to not have their names associated with hers. She says the suggestion that she doesn't work well with others couldn't be further from the truth.

"I'm doing everything I can to foster a team environment by having meetings with all of the NDP candidates in the Quebec City area to push the idea of having a regional office to help everyone," says Montreuil.

Likewise, the NDP is holding to the position that Micheline Montreuil suffers from serious attitude issues:

An NDP spokesperson says Montreuil's gender identity is not the reason she was given the boot.

"She can say whatever she likes but she knows our reasons and she knows that her gender identity is not one of them," says Matthew McLauchlin, copresident of the NDP Quebec section's LGBTT commission. "Essentially the reason we couldn't retain her candidacy is because of her behaviour toward other NDP activists."

McLauchlin says Montreuil promised to tone down her language when speaking in public after the party told her language she used in media interviews was too strong.

"In her first few interviews she used metaphors that were violent and pugnacious," McLauchlin alleges. "Any candidate can make a gaffe, however the problem with Ms Montreuil is that when we gave her feedback about her language she said she understood our concerns and would express herself more appropriately but then didn't.

"The Quebec election planning committee would much rather have kept Ms Montreuil as a candidate, however this kind of disregard on her part made it impossible to do so," he says.

This is not the sort of distraction the NDP needs.  If Micheline Montreuil follows through on her to start legal action against the NDP, this story could continue to distract the NDP for months.

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