Municipal elections | Cheques to seniors during election campaign: "Mayor Boyer is multiplying dubious maneuvers to ensure his re-election. It's despicable" - Claude Larochelle
Laval, Thursday, October 30, 2025 - Parti Laval- Équipe Larochelle mayoral candidate Claude Larochelle has officially filed a complaint with Elections Québec denouncing Mayor Stéphane Boyer's use of municipal resources to promote his re-election. In the midst of the election campaign, just a few days before the vote, Mayor Stéphane Boyer allegedly sent out over 30,000 letters bearing his signature, attached to subsidy cheques from the Home Support Program for seniors aged 65 and over. The outgoing mayor also published messages, notably on Facebook, expressly inviting the citizens of eastern Laval to "choose a strong team" and vote for candidates from his party, the Mouvement lavallois, to ensure collaboration with the mayor's office. Claude Larochelle, Parti Laval's candidate for mayor, expressed his indignation this morning at such practices, which he considers worthy of another era: "It's odious and unfair. The mayor is trying to ensure his re-election by using the city's resources and threatening the citizens of eastern Laval with 'non-collaboration' if they elect councillors from another party. It's time to draw a line under these abuses that tarnish municipal democracy in Laval. The people of Laval deserve better. The only truly credible and responsible alternative is Parti Laval.
Dubious electoral maneuvers: Mayor Boyer's party strikes again
Parti Laval reminded us this morning that this is not the first time the Mouvement lavallois - Équipe Stéphane Boyer has been the target of allegations of dubious electoral manoeuvring, which makes current practices, according to Mr. Larochelle, all the more serious. On October 24, 2024, Mouvement Lavallois leader Stéphane Boyer received a stern warning about the use of municipal resources for partisan purposes during the 2019 by-election. Indeed, the Directeur général des élections du Québec (DGEQ) had already deemed a complaint well-founded and concluded: "It is important to mention that the last two offences constitute 'fraudulent electoral manoeuvres' under section 645 of the AERM (Act respecting elections and referendums in municipalities)." (p. 3, par. 1 of letter from DGEQ to ML, October 24, 2024)
However, according to Claude Larochelle, the practices of the outgoing mayor's party, in the middle of an election campaign, would be an "odious and unfair" recurrence. With this personalized letter from the Home Support Program dated October 1, 2025, for which the printing, envelope and postage were paid by the city, the mayor uses his cabinet letterhead and signature to distribute cheques of 150 $ to 300 $ to some 30,000 to 40,000 Laval residents, for a total of over 8 million $. Such a letter, promoting the mayor's re-election, constitutes an election expense that must be paid by the mayor's party with the authorization of his official agent.
Parti Laval - Équipe Larochelle also denounces a publication and an intervention by the outgoing mayor during a candidates' debate in the east, where Stéphane Boyer claimed that districts represented by a political party other than his own would be less well served. In fact, in a text published on the Mouvement lavallois Facebook page at 9:35 a.m. on October 29, the outgoing mayor invited voters in eastern Laval to "choose a strong team" and vote for his party's three candidates in Duvernay, Saint-Vincent-de-Paul and Saint-François. In the publication, signed by his official agent, the mayor writes that "electing a Mouvement lavallois councillor, rather than a representative of another party, ensures that the needs of the field are truly brought to city hall. Instead of having a representative in opposition mode, you'll have someone in collaboration and solution mode. That makes all the difference. This message, in the midst of an election campaign, suggests that citizens in these neighborhoods would be at a disadvantage if they voted for another party. A form of political threat totally unacceptable to Mr. Larochelle's political party. "When you aspire to run a city, you must be the mayor of all Laval residents, regardless of neighborhood or allegiance. To use one's title as mayor and official channels to influence the vote or intimidate voters is contrary to the very spirit of municipal democracy," explains Claude Larochelle.
"Having already received a warning from the DGEQ in October 2024 for electoral maneuvers deemed fraudulent, Mayor Boyer is back at it again with dubious maneuvers, this time in the middle of an election campaign. Using the City's money and a major municipal program for seniors to promote his re-election, while seeking to intimidate voters in the East, is crossing a red line. I can't believe it! Laval deserves better than practices worthy of another era," concludes Mr. Larochelle, who hopes that Lavallois voters will turn out in large numbers on Sunday to finally put an end to these "excesses that tarnish municipal democracy in Laval.
SOURCE :
Laval Party
INFORMATION : Tommy Vallée | Communications Manager
438 875 8663 │contact@tommyvallee.com