Vision Montreal mayoral candidate Louise Harel denied her party took cash kickbacks to run its campaign as suggested by her ousted former colleague, Benoit Labonte.

Harel, surrounded by journalists in Montreal, said she has insisted upon above-board donations ever since she took over the party from Labonte earlier this year.

In an interview broadcast Thursday by Radio-Canada, Labonte said Harel knew that companies illegally divided up big donations into smaller cheques to make them appear to be personal donations.

He said Harel "admitted that it was done everywhere, that it was even done in the PQ" - a reference to the separatist party in which Harel once served as a cabinet minister.

But Harel said she has never accepted cash under the table in provincial or municipal politics.

"For 27 and a half years I never used the system described by Mr. Labonte," she told reporters.

"I absolutely never did it and I had absolutely no intention of using this type of system.

"You can go to the website and see all of the names of the donors."

Harel said her party even scaled back its campaign to account for the fact that it wouldn't be accepting cash donations. She also added that Labonte never questioned her integrity in the Radio-Canada interview.

Harel fired Labonte last weekend following revelations that he took cash donations from construction magnate Tony Accurso.

Bombshells

Labonte's tell-all interview included allegations that the mob has infiltrated Montreal politics and that workers for Mayor Gerald Tremblay's party collect kickbacks in exchange for public contracts.

Harel has called for an inquiry into the allegations of widespread corruption at Montreal city hall that have become the top issue in the last few weeks leading to the Nov. 1 election.

Tremblay at CTV Montreal

Tremblay appeared on CTV News at Noon on Friday to reiterate that he didn't know about corruption allegations until this year and that he went to police as soon as he had proof.

There are currently police investigations into a number of city files including a water-meter contract linked to fraud as well as the deal to replace the city-hall roof - a contract that's been rocked by bribery allegations.

The mayor says he hopes that voters aren't turned off by all the allegations of dirty politics.

"I want the citizens to vote," he said.

"A lot of those with cynicism, go and vote."