Claude Pinard tendered his resignation three weeks ago as president and CEO of Centraide of Greater Montreal to run as a city council candidate under the Ensemble Montréal banner.

But his political baptism by fire came Monday when he showed up at an event where the federal government and the City of Montreal announced a $320-million investment to prepare the old Blue Bonnets racetrack site for the construction of its first 2,250 housing units by 2030.

Pinard had not been invited — even though he was a founding member of the expert group known by the acronym GALOPH, which was appointed to help get the long-stalled project moving. Since he’s now running for the opposing team, Pinard said he was persona non grata and shooed away by Mayor Valérie Plante’s staff. So he left.

“I didn’t want to make a scene,” Pinard recounted during a sit-down interview with The Gazette.

Things turned political quickly for the mover and shaker, who is more accustomed to doors being opened when he came knocking as head of Centraide to raise money for community organizations that are on the front lines dealing with Montreal’s less fortunate.

But Pinard isn’t fazed by this partisan parry and thrust. He seems ready to give as good as he gets in the political arena, calling out being asked to leave the event as a lack of “elegance” in a Facebook post.

“It really made me laugh a bit when the mairesse said (at the Blue Bonnets housing press conference) ‘I hope that the next administration will continue to do social and affordable.’ We never wanted to do anything else!” Pinard said.

“You have to understand, I don’t believe in the trickle-down strategy, that you build a lot of whatever and at one point it’s going to get cheaper. I don’t believe that. I think we really need to do social and affordable housing. With Blue Bonnets, the part I was responsible for, the 10,000 doors, was 5,000 affordable, 5,000 social.”

© Montreal Gazette