Yves Lévesque, the mayor of Quebec’s ninth-largest city who was courted by the federal Conservatives for a possible 2019 run with the party, resigned from city hall Thursday citing health reasons.

Lévesque had been mayor of Trois-Rivières, located on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City, since 2001, and is leaving with three years remaining in his fifth mandate.

His spokesman, Yvan Toutant, could not hold back tears when he told reporters at city hall about the emotional council meeting held Thursday morning in the departing mayor’s absence.

“I am convinced (Lévesque) would have preferred to have a better departure than this,” Toutant said.

Toutant said in an interview “it’s way too early” for Lévesque to make a decision on his future with the Conservative party.

Tory leader Andrew Scheer held a meeting last April with Lévesque in Trois-Rivières during the leader’s Quebec tour. Scheer said at the time that the party was looking for quality candidates for the 2019 election and Lévesque had a solid reputation.

Lévesque told reporters the following month he was seriously considering a run with the party.

At a meeting of the party’s Quebec wing last May in Saint-Hyacinthe, Que., about 60 kilometres east of Montreal, Scheer mentioned the names of Levesque and former Bloc Québécois leader Michel Gauthier as two people helping the party gain influence in the province.

Gauthier, who led the Bloc Québécois from 1996 to 1997, said at the time he would help the Tories find candidates in Quebec ahead of the 2019 campaign.

“Believe me,” Scheer told the 400-person crowd in his closing speech.

“The Michel Gauthiers and the Yves Lévesques, there will be many more of them.”

Requests for comment to the Conservative party and its head of operations in Quebec were not immediately returned.

In a public statement addressed to citizens published Thursday, Lévesque said his decision to resign as mayor was “difficult and heart-rending.”

“For medical reasons and under orders from my doctor, I came to this inescapable decision.”

Neither Lévesque nor Toutant gave details about the departing mayor’s illness. He has been on sick leave since October.

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