On the eve of the municipal election, the fight promises to be close in several boroughs of Montreal, where the arrival of new parties and controversial candidates, as well as the emergence of key issues in housing and public safety, make the outcome of this race, which ends, unpredictable. Overview.
Côte-des-Neiges – Notre-Dame-de-Grâce
There are plenty of options for voters in the metropolitan area’s most populous district, which this year has six mayoral candidates. Of the lot, we count in particular the current mayor, Sue Montgomery. The elected, who has sat as an independent since her expulsion from the Projet Montréal party in January 2020, founded her own party, Courage, and is now campaigning for her re-election, notably calling for the division in two of the borough. The Ensemble Montréal party is betting on Lionel Perez, who has held the position of party leader at town hall for the past four years, to try to obtain the mayoralty of this popular district. The training of Valérie Plante, Projet Montreal, will try to win again its bet in this sector by opting for a new recruit, the nurse and manager Gracia Kasoki Katahwa. Very clever, therefore, who could predict the outcome of the vote in this district, where five City councilor positions are also to be filled.
Villeray – Saint-Michel – Parc-Extension
Of the five candidates for mayor of this district, three are from Projet Montréal, which has lost several elected officials in recent years against a backdrop of internal tensions. The mayor, Giuliana Fumagalli, who was expelled from Valérie Plante’s party in 2018 because of allegations of harassment, founded her local party, Quartiers Montréal. Projet Montréal is counting on Laurence Lavigne Lalonde, who has been responsible for the ecological transition for the past four years on the executive committee, to run for mayor of this borough, where the issue of the lack of affordable and healthy housing, especially in Parc-Extension, quickly established itself in the countryside. Denis Coderre’s party, for its part, relies on the co-president of the Ensemble Montréal platform and former advisor of Projet Montréal Guillaume Lavoie to try to conquer the town hall. The team wants to remove the fence that separates Parc-Extension from the town of Mount-Royal.
Montreal-North
In this stronghold of Denis Coderre, all the seats were won by Ensemble Montreal in 2017. The dice have not yet been rolled, since Projet Montréal is betting everything for everything this year with its star candidate, Will Prosper, a documentary filmmaker and activist anti-racist. The latter’s candidacy for mayor of Montreal-North was announced amid growing concerns about alleged cases of racial profiling by the police and the increase in the number of shootings in the metropolis. Mr. Prosper’s aura darkened last August, however, when The Journal of Montreal revealed that the candidate would have consulted a register of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police without authorization while he was a gendarme, which would have led to his resignation in 2003. Ensemble Montreal for its part again relies on Christine Black. The mayoral candidate also wants to tackle public safety issues in the borough, where public transport needs are also important.
Verdun
The housing crisis and the lack of social housing, especially in the L’Île-des-Sœurs neighborhood, are decisive points in this borough, where the mayoral candidate for Projet Montréal, Marie-Andrée Mauger, proposes to s ” press the Regulations for a mixed metropolis to correct the situation. In order to fill the seat left vacant by the departure of the elected independent Jean-François Parenteau, the Ensemble Montréal party is betting on the real estate broker Antoine Richard. However, the latter had in recent weeks to prove his ability to defend housing cases, since he had recourse to prohibited practices by carrying out ” flips »Very profitable real estate in 2019 and 2020. The businesswoman Nadine Gelly, whom Denis Coderre wishes to see become the next president of the executive committee, is opposed in the district of Champlain – L’Île-des-Sœurs to Véronique Tremblay , a former elected member of Ensemble Montreal who made the jump for the party of Valérie Plante this summer.
Mercier – Hochelaga-Maisonneuve
Again this year, the fight promises to be close between the formation of Valérie Plante and that of Denis Coderre in this district, where the hot files are not lacking. From the cost of housing to the fight against homelessness, the challenges are multiple in this borough, where several residents are opposed to the container transshipment project of the company Ray-Mont Logistiques for environmental reasons. To try to win back the town hall of this borough, Ensemble Montréal is counting on councilor Karine Boivin-Roy, while Pierre Lessard-Blais is running again on behalf of Projet Montréal. Mouvement Montréal is counting on the former spokesperson for Les Courageuses, Patricia Tulasne, to try to make a breakthrough at the head of this borough.
Rivière-des-Prairies – Pointe-aux-Trembles
The formation of Denis Coderre won its bet in this arrondissement twice, in 2013 and in 2017. The following year, however, the departure of the former mayor Chantal Rouleau to become minister in the government of the Coalition futur Quebec gave Project Montreal candidate Caroline Bourgeois the opportunity to be elected at the head of this borough after a close fight with her then-Ensemble Montreal opponent, Manuel Guedes. A close fight is thus announced this time again between the mayoress and the candidate Lyne Laperrière, of Ensemble Montreal. In addition to public safety issues in the area, the future of the river shuttle between Pointe-aux-Trembles and the Old Port of Montreal and the decontamination of land in the east of the island are among the concerns of the voters.
China
In the Lachine borough, the future of the marina – one of the largest in Quebec – has emerged as the electoral issue that divides the two main political parties. This marina has already been closed since last year in anticipation of its conversion into a waterfront park by 2025 as part of a project supported by the current mayor, Maja Vodanovic, of Projet Montréal. The candidate of Ensemble Montreal for mayor of this borough, Josée Côté, is however fiercely opposed to this project of 25 million dollars, especially since she is the former president of the Association of the pleasure boaters of the Lachine marina. Denis Coderre’s training thus proposes a “hybrid” project at this location, which could accommodate both motor boats and non-motorized boats.
Ville-Marie
The race in Ville-Marie promises to be particularly exciting this year, as several new recruits could enter politics. In the Peter-McGill district, Projet Montréal presents this year a young manager from the health sector, Daniel Tran, to take the seat that will be left vacant by the departure of Cathy Wong, who in November 2017 became the first woman to chair the Montreal municipal council. The formation of Denis Coderre, for its part, relies on the former vice-president of Quebecor Serge Sasseville as the star candidate in this district, where the running mate of Balarama Holness, Idil Issa, is also trying to get elected. Valérie Plante will for her part be able to sit in the district of Sainte-Marie if she is defeated on November 7, provided that her candidate in this district, Sophie Mauzerolle, is elected.