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Anglophone minister denies rumours, insists she’ll run again

Click to play video: 'Kathleen Weil plans to run again in 2018 Quebec elections'
Kathleen Weil plans to run again in 2018 Quebec elections
WATCH: Kathleen Weil, Quebec's minister responsible for relations with the province's English-speaking community, is shaking her head at rumours she won't be running for reelection in the 2018 Quebec elections. Global's Raquel Fletcher reports – Feb 15, 2018

The MNA for NDG is shaking her head at rumours that she won’t run again in the next election.

Kathleen Weil, who is also the minister responsible for relations with English-speaking Quebecers, has been insisting for weeks she will run, but one Montreal radio commentator doesn’t believe her.

“I find it really quite reprehensible how people can speculate publicly about someone’s intentions,” Weil said.

READ MORE: ‘Bonjour, hi’ motion ‘positive in its spirit’ says English minister

Last week, the politician said she has every intention to run in the October election. On Thursday, she said it again, but she’s frustrated the message doesn’t seem to be getting through.

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“People should accept that. People should just simply accept that,” Weil said.

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For the last two days, political commentator, Bernard Drainville, has been speculating on which current ministers may or may not run again.

A former PQ minister, Drainville said there’s a possibility that Weil will step aside and the Liberal Party will give her riding to the higher education minister, Helene David. David’s current riding of Outremont is merging with Mont-Royal in the next election.

According to Drainville, Weil is keeping her plans to quit politics under wraps until closer to the election date. He says it’s part of a Liberal strategy to prevent the English-speaking community in NDG from finding another anglophone candidate to replace her.

READ MORE: Anglos in Quebec: Bilingualism holds steady in the Eastern Townships

Drainville surmised that giving anglos too much time to get organized, would put the premier in a position where he would be obliged to accept the anglophone community’s candidate.

“Listen, where does that come from?” Weil said. “I really don’t know if this was all just invented by somebody, I have no idea.”

Drainville declined an interview with Global News on Thursday.

Weil said she is planning to declare her official candidacy at a special ceremony in May in NDG.

Until then, she’s working on tabling an action plan for English-speaking communities before spring.

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