The City Of Montreal's Election Period Starts Friday — What You Need To Know

Hey Montreal, I hope you remember that after the federal election is over on September 20, you'll be in the throes of yet another election, this time for the mayor of Montreal, city and borough councils.

By now, we should all know the candidates, the parties, and what they claim to stand for but some of us might have no idea how to vote, when to vote, or how this whole mayoral election thing even works.

Here's what you need to know.

The candidates

While there are 16 officially registered political parties in Montreal vying for your vote, only three have really dominated the headlines: Ensemble Montréal, Mouvement Montréal and Project Montréal.

Project Montréal forms the current administration, lead by Valérie Plante. Plante has been the leader of the party since 2016 and was elected mayor in 2017. Plante is the first woman to be Montreal's mayor.

Plante dethroned former mayor Denis Coderre and his party Ensemble Montréal at the last election, prompting him to exit politics.

But Coderre is back and wants to regain the office of mayor. Ensemble Montréal has served as the official opposition in City Hall since the 2017 election.

Mouvement Montréal, meanwhile, is a new party with a charismatic leader in former CFL player Balarama Holness who promises to change Montreal and bring it into the future. Holness and his party have introduced bold policy moves, which include making Montreal a city-state within Quebec and making public transit free for everyone under 25.

The process

The parties officially kicked off their campaigns on September 17, with promises and election signs aplenty.

There are 103 elective positions in 58 electoral districts in all 19 boroughs of Montreal. The breakdown is as follows, according to Elections Montréal:

• mayor of Montreal
• 18 borough mayors who are also city councillors;
• 46 city councillors;
• and 38 borough councillors.

There will be four full days of elections with two advance polling days and two official election days.

How to vote

There will be four full days of elections in Montreal plus mail-in voting.

Advance polling days will take place on Saturday and Sunday, October 30 and 31, 2021, from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. in select polling stations.

The actual election will take place over two days on Saturday and Sunday, November 6 and 7, 2021, from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. in over 400 polling stations around the city

In 2017, 42.5% of registered voters participated in the election, according to Elections Montréal. Will we eclipse that number this year?