2017 Montreal municipal election
Municipal elections were held in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada on November 5, 2017 as part of the 2017 Quebec municipal elections. Voters elected 65 positions on the Montreal City Council, including the mayor, borough mayors, and city councillors, as well as 38 borough councillors.
Results
Despite early polls giving incumbent mayor Denis Coderre a comfortable lead, the election concluded with Valérie Plante of Projet Montréal winning the mayoralty race by a margin of over 27,000 votes, becoming the first woman and first representative of Projet Montréal to be elected mayor of Montreal. Her party won a majority of the city council, 34 of 65 councillors.Projet Montréal won unanimous control of four borough councils and majorities on seven more. Équipe Denis Coderre pour Montréal won unanimous control of four borough councils and majorities on two more. The two remaining boroughs, Anjou and LaSalle, were won unanimously by local parties, Équipe Anjou and Équipe Barbe Team respectively.
Several key city council figures were defeated, such as Russell Copeman, Harout Chitilian, Claude Dauphin, Anie Samson, Réal Ménard and Elsie Lefebvre. Projet Montréal founder Richard Bergeron, who had crossed the floor to Équipe Coderre, was defeated by the candidate for his former party, Robert Beaudry.
Following his defeat, Denis Coderre announced he would resign from political life, leaving his city council seat to his co-candidate Chantal Rossi. On November 9, members of his party elected Darlington councillor Lionel Perez as leader; it was also announced that the party, named for Coderre, would change name in the coming weeks.
Coalition Montréal was left with only one remaining elected official, Montreal's longest-serving city councillor Marvin Rotrand. Vrai changement pour Montréal, which had come in second in the mayoralty race in the previous election, lost all its seats, and announced it would suspend its activities.
For the first time, a majority of Montreal's elected officials were women. However, only six of the 103 elected officials, including four of the 65 members of the city council, declared themselves to be members of visible minorities. Visible minorities make up a third of the population of the city. Another elected official, Champlain–L'Île-des-Soeurs city councillor Marie-Josée Parent, who is of Mi'kmaq ancestry, became the first indigenous person elected to Montreal city council.
The official results were released on November 8, 2017. There was one request for a recount, in the race for borough councillor for La Pointe-des-Prairies in Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles, in which Lisa Christensen of Projet Montréal had been announced as the winner with a lead of 32 votes. The recount was conducted by a judge of the Court of Quebec and Ms. Christensen was confirmed as the winner by a majority of 30 votes.
Composition of city and borough councils
Depending on their borough, Montrealers voted for:- Mayor of Montreal
- Borough mayor, who is also a city councillor
- A city councillor for the whole borough or for each district, who is also a borough councillor
- Zero, one, or two additional borough councillors for each district
Timeline
2014
- May 5 - Borough councillors Lucie Cardyn and Jacqueline Gremaud leave Équipe conservons Outremont to sit as independents.
- May 25 - Death of Marcel Côté, leader of Coalition Montréal
- June 16 - Borough mayor Benoit Dorais becomes leader of Coalition Montréal.
- September 5 - Resignation of Mélanie Joly as leader of Vrai changement pour Montréal, replaced by city councillor Lorraine Pagé
- October 27 - Resignation of Richard Bergeron as leader of Projet Montréal, replaced by borough mayor Luc Ferrandez
- November 18 - City councillor Richard Bergeron leaves Projet Montréal to sit as independent.
- December 12 - Resignation of Lucie Cardyn as borough councillor of Robert-Bourassa
2015
- March 17 - City councillor Steve Shanahan announces his candidacy for Conservative Party of Canada in Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Sœurs and is expelled from Vrai changement pour Montréal.
- March 22 - In a by-election, Marie Potvin is elected borough councillor of Robert-Bourassa with 37% of the vote.
- June 15 - Borough councillors Michelle Di Genova Zammit and Éric Dugas leave their parties to join Équipe Denis Coderre pour Montréal.
- June 23 - Death of Domenico Moschella, city councillor of Saint-Léonard-Est
- August 6 - City councillor Marc-André Gadoury leaves Projet Montréal to join Équipe Denis Coderre pour Montréal.
- September 8 - City councillor Érika Duchesne leaves Projet Montréal to sit as independent.
- September 16 - City councillor Jean-François Cloutier leaves Équipe Dauphin Lachine to sit as independent.
- November 15 - In a by-election, Patricia Lattanzio is elected city councillor of Saint-Léonard-Est with 83.7% of the vote.
- December 16 - City councillor Lorraine Pagé leaves Vrai changement pour Montréal to sit as independent.
- December 22 - City councillor Justine McIntyre becomes leader of Vrai changement pour Montréal.
2016
- January 7 - Resignation of Gilles Deguire as borough mayor of Montréal-Nord, replaced by city councillor Chantal Rossi
- January 18 - City councillor Steve Shanahan rejoins Vrai changement pour Montréal.
- March 17 - City councillor Érika Duchesne joins Équipe Denis Coderre pour Montréal.
- April 24 - In a by-election, Christine Black is elected borough mayor of Montréal-Nord with 68.6% of the vote.
- November 4 - Borough mayor Russell Copeman leaves Coalition Montréal to join Équipe Denis Coderre pour Montréal.
- November 6 - City councillor Richard Bergeron joins Équipe Denis Coderre pour Montréal.
- November 28 - Borough councillor Maja Vodanovic leaves Équipe Dauphin Lachine to sit as independent.
- December 4 - City councillor Valérie Plante is elected leader of Projet Montréal with 51.9% of the vote.
- December 26 - Borough mayor Benoit Dorais leaves Coalition Montréal to sit as independent.
- December 29 - City councillor Marvin Rotrand becomes interim leader of Coalition Montréal.
2017
- January 23 - Borough councillor Maja Vodanovic joins Projet Montréal.
- March 29 - Borough mayor Réal Ménard leaves Coalition Montréal to join Équipe Denis Coderre pour Montréal.
- May 29 - City councillors Lorraine Pagé and Jean-François Cloutier and borough councillor Kimberley Simonyik join Équipe Denis Coderre pour Montréal.
- May 31 - Borough mayor Benoit Dorais joins Projet Montréal.
- June 11 - City councillor Elsie Lefebvre leaves Coalition Montréal to sit as independent.
- June 28 - Borough mayor Normand Marinacci and borough councillors Christian Larocque and Jean-Dominic Lévesque-René leave Vrai changement pour Montréal to join Projet Montréal.
- August 23 - City councillor Elsie Lefebvre joins Équipe Denis Coderre pour Montréal.
- September 20 - Borough councillor Gilles Beaudry leaves Équipe Anjou to sit as independent.
- September 22 - Official beginning of the electoral campaign
- October 17 - Jean Fortier, mayoral candidate for Coalition Montréal, announces that he is abandoning his campaign for mayor of Montreal. However, his name will remain on the ballot. He endorses Valérie Plante of Projet Montréal for mayor.
- October 19 - French mayoral debate opposing Denis Coderre and Valérie Plante
- October 23 - English mayoral debate opposing Denis Coderre and Valérie Plante
- October 29 - Advance poll with a turnout of 6.54% of the registered electors
Incumbent mayors and councillors who did not run for re-election
- Maurice Cohen, borough councillor, Côte-de-Liesse, Saint-Laurent
- Pierre Desrochers, city councillor, Saint-Sulpice, Ahuntsic-Cartierville
- Pierre Gagnier, borough mayor, Ahuntsic-Cartierville
- Manon Gauthier, city councillor, Champlain–L'Île-des-Sœurs, Verdun
- Jean-Marc Gibeau, city councillor, Ovide-Clermont, Montréal-Nord
- Sylvia Lo Bianco, borough councillor, Ovide-Clermont, Montréal-Nord
- Monica Ricourt, borough councillor, Marie-Clarac, Montréal-Nord
- Guillaume Lavoie, city councillor, Marie-Victorin, Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie
- Jean-Dominic Lévesque-René, borough councillor, Jacques-Bizard, L'Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève
- Louise Mainville, city councillor, De Lorimier, Le Plateau Mont-Royal
- Paul-Yvon Perron, borough councillor, East district, Anjou
- Marie Cinq-Mars, borough mayor, Outremont
Opinion polls
| Polling firm | Last date of polling | Link | Équipe Coderre | Projet Montréal | Vrai changement | Coalition Montréal | Other | Undecided | Sample size |
| CROP | 37 | 39 | 2 | 17 | 1,094 | ||||
| Leger | 38 | 38 | 3 | 21 | 500 | ||||
| Mainstreet | 30 | 25 | 3 | 41 | 500 | ||||
| Leger | 43 | 29 | 14 | 2,013 | |||||
| Leger | 57 | 13 | 6 | 5 | 15 | 600 | |||
| 2013 Election | 32.1 | 25.5 | 26.5 | 12.8 | 3.1 | 464,966 |