How Soraya Martinez Ferrada won Montreal, and what's next

After eight years under Valérie Plante and her party Projet Montréal, Montrealers voted in favour of change.

Soraya Martinez Ferrada, who stepped down from her post as a federal cabinet minister to run for mayor, was projected to win with 43 per cent of the vote.

She beat out Luc Rabouin, Plante’s successor, by eight per cent.

Her party won over several boroughs from Projet and appeared poised to take a majority of seats at city council.

"Tonight, Montreal sent a clear message — we need change,” Martinez-Ferrada said in her victory speech.

It was a convincing win for Martinez Ferrada, who arrived in Montreal at age eight when her family fled the Pinochet regime in Chile.

She ran a steady campaign with the slogan “Listen and Act” — a clear jab at Plante’s reputation among her critics for pushing ahead with a progressive agenda on initiatives such as bike paths.

One of Martinez Ferrada’s first promises, back in August, was to conduct an audit of the city’s cycling network, which was expanded under Plante, and eliminate any found to be dangerous.

She also promised, within 100 days of taking office, to conduct an inventory of construction sites to improve traffic flow, reform the city’s approach to affordable housing and boost funding to help deal with homelessness.

But fixing Montreal’s biggest problems could be easier said than done.

Montreal is facing a housing crisis, a financially strapped public transit system and growing complaints about traffic on the roads. 

These issues were also a priority for Plante when she was elected eight years ago. 

She was unable to solve them, and near the end of her time in office lamented that the provincial and federal governments couldn’t do more to help. 

Will the next mayor fare much better?