Ferrandez re-elected as Projet Montréal looks to sweep

Projet Montréal collects another sweep of borough

Luc Ferrandez won his third term as mayor of the Plateau– Mont–Royal borough, and his Projet Montréal party easily maintained control of the area’s six city and borough council seats.

With almost 96 per cent of polling stations in the borough reporting, Ferrandez was leading with 65.41 per cent of the vote.

“We were confident,” Ferrandez said. “We could feel it on the street.”

For weeks, he said, people came up to him promising their support as he walked and biked around the neighbourhood.

“We had 200 volunteers today,” he said. “We had people working hard. Why? Because (Denis) Coderre despised us from the beginning.”

During a mid-October campaign stop in Plateau–Mont– Royal, incumbent Montreal mayor Denis Coderre said that a “Ferrandez effect” was hurting local businesses.

For Ferrandez, the result of the vote was a rebuke of Coderre’s statement.

“In your face, Mr. Coderre,” Ferrandez said. “He attacked me, he attacked my district, he had no limits.”

Coderre used Ferrandez’s policies to criticize his challenger, Valérie Plante. In one debate, he accused her of wanting to “Plateau-ize Montreal,” a charge she denied.

“It was such a bad strategy,” Ferrandez said.

Ferrandez ran largely on his record and promised to continue the type of policy he has pursued during the past eight years — more green space, the promotion of active transportation and traffic-calming measures. They’re policies that he said have improved quality of life in the area.

“We’re going to do more of what we are doing so well,” he said.

This is the second consecutive election where Ferrandez has increased his share of the vote. In 2013, he won 51.28 per cent, up from 44.76 per cent in 2009.

His opponent, Zach Macklovitch of Équipe Denis Coderre, a 27-year-old entrepreneur, promised to cut red tape and do more to support local business. He was well behind Ferrandez, with 34.59 per cent of the vote.

Ferrandez said a Plante victory over Coderre, who has cut transfers from the central city to the Plateau, will be good for residents.

“It was almost impossible to run the district with the cuts he made,” he said.

Also cruising to victory for Projet Montréal Sunday were city councillors Richard Ryan, Marianne Giguère and Alex Norris, and borough councillors Marie Plourde, Josefina Blanco and Maeva Vilain. Ryan, Norris and Plourde were all incumbents, while Giguère was previously a borough councillor. Ryan, Giguère, Plourde and Blanco were all leading with more than 70 per cent of the vote.

A second challenger for borough mayor, publisher and writer Michel Brûlé, who stood with the Plateau sans frontières party, dropped out of the race along with several other members of his party in late October after seven former employees of his publishing company accused him of sexual harassment. Brûlé denied the allegations.