Old Brewery Mission president and CEO James Hughes will run for the Quebec Liberals in this fall’s general election, stepping down from his roles at the non-profit as a result.
Sources confirmed Wednesday evening that Hughes, a lawyer who has been president of the Old Brewery since September 2020, will run for the Liberals in the riding of Vaudreuil. The announcement was officially made Thursday by Liberal Leader Charles Milliard.
The riding came open by surprise this week with the decision by the sitting Liberal MNA, Marie-Claude Nichols, to not seek re-election for family reasons.
Nichols won the riding, immediately west of the island of Montreal, in 2022 by a mere 576 votes.
Hughes is Milliard’s second big-name catch for the Liberal campaign in two days.
On Wednesday, Milliard confirmed Michel Leblanc, the former head of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, will run in the southwest Montreal riding of Marguerite-Bourgeoys.
But while Leblanc helps the Liberals beef up their economic team, Hughes will be seen as more of a social justice candidate, which also goes to the roots of the Quebec Liberal Party.
Born in Montreal, Hughes spent his early years in Verdun. He graduated in law from McGill in 1991.
The Old Brewery Mission’s James Hughes in 2005. Marie-France Coallier / Montreal Gazette files
He was executive director of the Old Brewery from 2004 to 2008 before leaving to work for the government of New Brunswick.
He returned as president and CEO in 2020 and is credited with having moved the Old Brewery — a respected 137-year-old institution caring for unhoused people in Montreal — onto a more modern footing.
Old Brewery Mission confirmed Hughes’ departure in a press release Thursday, announcing he would be replaced by Matthew Pearce as interim president. Pearce, who previously served as Old Brewery Mission CEO from 2008 to 2020, will officially step into the role on Aug. 17.
“Leading the Old Brewery Mission—twice, no less—has been one of the greatest honors of my career. I am leaving with the conviction that the organization is in good hands, and I will continue, in a different capacity, to champion the causes that are close to my heart,” said Hughes in the release.
Hughes, a bilingual community leader, has written three books on social services and is a regular media and academic commentator on issues of poverty and housing.
In 2025 he was awarded the National Assembly medal of honour in “recognition of an outstanding career dedicated to social commitment and supporting the underprivileged.”
This will be Hughes’s second attempt to get elected. In the 2015 federal election, he ran for the New Democratic Party in the riding of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount.
He placed second to the Liberal candidate, the late former astronaut Marc Garneau.
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