Humbert, a 4-year-old furry feline, tries to purr-suade voters in NDG-Westmount

There's a new independent candidate running in the riding of NDG-Westmount.

Humbert, a four-year-old tiger tabby cat, is throwing his paw into the mix with NDP candidate James Hughes, Conservative candidate Richard Sagala and incumbent Liberal MP Marc Garneau.

Under slogans like "An honest face," "The time is now," and "Let's keep the box clean," Humbert is running in his first-ever paw-litical campaign.

The feline however, has already made a name for himself in the neighbourhood.

Last year, Humbert and his owner John Jordan took it upon themselves to fight a graffiti problem in their alleyway with cat-inspired art.

Humbert can often be found hanging out on top of the beer cases at his local dépanneur on Sherbrooke and Harvard streets, spending time at Iris Florist or in Jordan's Alley Cat Gallery.

"He's good at his job and he's well-known," says Jordan. "He's a man of the people."

Jordan has put up four signs so far and has plans to put up another twelve in the coming week. He says that while the campaign is just for fun, he's hearing from people who say they're disillusioned with politics.

"We just thought that given all the characters running for election, you couldn't do any worse than our cat," says Jordan.

The federal Liberal association for NDG-Westmount tweeted it's looking forward to hearing more about Humbert's policies.