Manon Perreault, Ex-NDP MP Convicted Of Mischief, Running For Quebec-Based Party

MONTREAL — A former NDP MP who was charged with mischief and ordered to pay a total of $1,400 will run in the federal election campaign for a Quebec-based party that favours supporting the province's outlying regions.

Manon Perreault, 49, will be Forces et democratie's candidate in Montcalm, the riding she won for the NDP in 2011.

She won the seat in 2011 with almost 15,000 more votes than the second-place Bloc Quebecois

She was ejected from NDP caucus in June 2014 and then sat as an Independent.

Perreault was found guilty earlier this year of mischief after she falsely accused a former employee of theft.

The head of Forces et democratie said Wednesday he doesn't believe the conviction will hurt her chances of being re-elected in the riding northeast of Montreal.

"I believe Manon Perreault is of good faith," Jean-Francois Fortin, a former Bloc Quebecois MP, told a news conference.

"We have spoken several times and I believe her version. We're hoping the appeals court, which has decided to hear the appeal, will do justice by her."

Perreault said her constituents are not pointing the finger at her.

"Will it (the incident) hurt me? No, I don't think so," she said. "On the contrary, people know me and I think it's created a wave of sympathy."

A judge fined Perreault $1,000 in July and tacked on $400 in court costs and a victim fine surcharge. She was also put on probation for one year.

Her biography says she began her career as an administrator, working for Montreal-based financial institutions.

Perreault, who uses a wheelchair, was also a trainer with Keroul, an organization promoting tourism for people with disabilities.

She sat on municipal council in Sainte-Marie-Salome from 2002 to 2009.

Forces et democratie had one other member in the Commons at dissolution: Jean-Francois Larose, a former NDP MP.

The party expects to field candidates in 20 to 25 of the province's 78 ridings.