Soraya Martinez Ferrada, leader of Ensemble Montréal, will become Montreal’s next mayor, CBC News has projected.
Martinez Ferrada, who is of Chilean descent, makes history as the first racialized person to be elected mayor of Montreal.
Following her win Sunday night, Martinez Ferrada leaned into her slogan “Listen and Act” — a nod to criticism against Projet Montréal that it failed to consult with residents.
The mayor-elect said she repeatedly heard during the campaign that Montrealers don’t feel heard.
“We are here tonight because thousands of Montrealers believe in a better city — a city that truly belongs to everyone,” Martinez Ferrada said onstage at the TOHU, a performing arts venue located in Montreal’s east end, where she used to work.
She thanked Plante for breaking a glass ceiling in the city, before acknowledging that Montrealers have sent a “powerful message” by electing a racialized woman.
MP to municipal politics
Martinez Ferrada moved to Montreal as a political refugee in 1980, fleeing the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet when she was only eight years old.
The former MP is the second woman to become mayor of the city, after outgoing mayor Valérie Plante. She resigned from Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government in February, shortly after which she announced her run for the leadership of Ensemble Montréal.
“The desire to serve the city that welcomed the young refugee from Chile, to serve the city that gave me my start in politics, is one that is too important for me to ignore,” Martinez Ferrada said in her resignation letter addressed to Trudeau.
The last time a leader of Ensemble Montréal was elected mayor was in 2013, when Denis Coderre, another former Liberal MP, was at the helm of the party.
Martinez Ferrada campaigned on a platform that prioritized accessibility to housing and a promise to end homelessness by the end of a first term.
As of 4:30 p.m. ET Sunday, Élections Montréal estimated voter turnout to be at 27 per cent. Polls closed at 8 p.m. ET.
About 38 per cent of eligible voters in Montreal cast a ballot in the last election in 2021 — four percentage points less than the number recorded in 2017.
Ensemble Montréal supporters hold a Soraya Martinez Ferrada campaign poster at the TOHU, the party’s headquarters for the evening. (Ivanoh Demers/Radio-Canada)Rabouin to resign from Projet Montréal
Martinez Ferrada’s win signals her party’s success at mobilizing Montrealers seeking change from Projet Montréal after two terms under Plante.
Following his loss, Projet Montréal Leader Luc Rabouin took to the stage at the Société des arts technologiques on St-Laurent Boulevard to deliver his concession speech for the mayorship, calling it a “tough night for us.”
He said in the following days he would step down from the helm of Projet Montréal.
“Tonight, thousands of citizens voted to build a fairer, more beautiful, greener city with Projet Montréal. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to win, and I take full responsibility for this defeat,” Rabouin said.
“I gave it everything I had, but it wasn’t enough.”