Denis Coderre Montreal's 44th mayor

CTV Montreal: New CDN/NDG mayor a familiar face

Denis Coderre has been elected mayor of Montreal.

The former federal cabinet minister was elected with 32 per cent of the votes cast for mayor.

Melanie Joly, the political neophyte, was second with 26.5 per cent of the ballots, while Richard Bergeron of Projet Montreal was third with 25.75 per cent of voter support. Marcel Coté of Coalition Montreal had just under 13 per cent.

The seven remaining candidates for mayor of Montreal included firebrand Michel Brûlé, who attracted 1.36 per cent of the vote on a campaign to francisize Montreal.

Coderre will not have a majority at city council, although Team Coderre councillors will form the largest voting bloc.

Coderre had 27 seats, Projet Montreal 20, Cote's Coalition 6, Joly's team 4, Pro Action LaSalle 2, Dauphin Lachine 2, Equipe Anjou 2, Equipe Conservons Outremont 1, and 1 Independent, according to totals tabulated on the Election Montreal site Monday.

However those numbers might be subject to change, as three per cent of votes have yet to be reported and some very close races might be subject to recounts.

Some borough mayoral incumbents won for parties that ran only in their areas, including Claude Dauphin in Lachine, Luis Miranda in Anjou, Manon Barbe in LaSalle.

In Montreal turnout was 41.05 per cent, about two percentage points higher than turned out four years ago. Throughout the province the turnout was five percent higher than in 2009, according to the municipal affairs ministry.

Bergeron has chance to sit on council

In Montreal mayoral candidates can run with a co-lister, so that even if they lose the larger race they can still sit on city council.

The catch is that their running mate must win a councillor seat. It is this way that Louise Harel and Richard Bergeron have, in the past, sat on city council despite losing mayoral bids to Gerald Tremblay.

In 2013 it appears that only one of the leading mayoral candidates will be sitting on city council.

Joly and Coté's both lost, so they won't neither will be on city council, although Joly said in her speech following the election that she intends to continue in city politics.

Meanwhile the interim mayor of Montreal, Laurent Blanchard, lost his seat in the Mercer-Hochelaga borough. He was Montreal's third mayor in the past year.

Ville Marie

In the downtown Ville Marie borough, Bergeron's running mate Janine Krieber finished the night with a 91-vote lead over former journalist and Team Coderre candidate Philippe Schnobb.

However Bergeron said he may decide to bow out of public life and let Krieber sit on city council instead of continuing to lead Projet Montreal.

"I will talk with Janine. We will discuss all our options... and I will let everyone know within 12 days," said Bergeron. Krieber said that she ran with the intention of Bergeron taking the seat and said she would urge him to do so.

In the Ville Marie district, marketing consulting Steven Shanahan won in Peter McGill by 491 votes for the Joly team over Damien Siles of Team Coderre.

Projet Montreal’s Valerie Plante, an activist and cyclist who has worked as a communications coordinator, edged out the Coalition’s Louise Harel, a former mayoral candidate and longtime PQ MNA, in the Sainte-Marie borough by 256 votes.

Two of the 67 ballot stations remained uncounted in those last two results, however.

St. Laurent

Coderre’s party swept the mayoralty, two council seats and two borough seats in the St. Laurent borough with Joly candidates placing a distant second in all five races.

Alan DeSousa was reelected borough mayor with a crushing 4,743 vote majority, beating Francois Ghali by 53 to 28.5 per cent.

Incumbent Aref Salem won the Norman McLaren council for Team Coderre, beating the Joly team’s Melanie Tannous by 1,300 votes.

Francesco Miele also won the Cote de Liesse council seat with relative ease for the Coderre team with a 757 victory over Eyal Albert Cohen, while Maurice Cohen and Michele D. Biron took the two borough council seats with wide margins, although a small number of votes had yet to be counted.

St. Leonard, Montreal North wild for Coderre

St. Leonard proved fertile grounds for Denis Coderre, as his mayoral candidate Michel Bissonnet won by an astounding 10,938 votes over Projet Montreal’s Cyrille Giraud.

Council candidate Dominic Perri also cruised to triumph in St. Leonard West, with a 4,60-vote victory over Edna Constant of Projet Montreal.

Coderre's team might have swept all three council seats had candidate Robert Zambito not been forced to step down. The incumbent councilor was alleged in a new report to have improperly profited from a land deal. Domenico Moschella beat the Projet Montreal candidate Roberta Peressini by 80 ballots in the St. Leonard East seat where Coderre was unable to field a candidate after Zambito’s withdrawal.

Montreal North also proved fruitful for the former MP Coderre, as his party took the mayoralty and both city council seats in landslides.

Former cop Gilles Deguire was re-elected mayor of Montreal North with an eye-catching 5,313 vote majority over Coalition candidate Guy Ryan.

Jean-Marc Gibeau was the city's only lucky co-lister, winning the Ovide-Clermont city council seat for Denis Coderre with a 5,313 majority, taking almost three of four votes, one of the highest in the city. Had Coderre lost his bid for the mayoralty, Coderre would have had the option of taking the seat from Gibeau. Meanwhile Chantal Rossi cruised to re-election with a margin of over 4,000 votes in the Marie Clarac district of Montreal North.

Landslides in Anjou for local party

Incumbent Anjou Mayor Luis Miranda, who has served on Anjou council since 1989, was returned with a 4,241 vote majority over Coderre’s Remi Tondreau. Miranda, who was elected under the Union Party in 2009, ran for the Equipe Anjou this time around.

Andree Henault won the only Anjou city council seat on the same ticket, winning by over 4,000 votes as well.

Cinq-Mars jumps from councilor to Outremont mayor

Outremont's borough mayoral post went to Marie Cinq-Mars, who has sat on council since 1999. The former Union Montreal party representative beat her Projet Montreal challenger Etienne Coutu by 390 votes. Cinq-Mars ran on a local ticket called the Equipe Conservons Outremont.

The Outremont borough mayor post is Outremont's only city council seat. Three of four Outremont borough council seats went to Cinq Mars' teammates, with the other going to Projet Montreal.

Dauphin's party cruises in Lachine

Incumbent Lachine Borough Mayor Claude Dauphin cruised to an easy romp with a 2,174 majority over his closest challenger, while Jean-Francois Cloutier won borough's only city council seat, with both winners running under the local Equipe Dauphin Lachine party. Cloutier beat Cote candidate Bernard Blanchet by 207 votes.

Dauphin could be a candidate for a seat on the executive committee, as his support and experience could be useful to the minority Coderre administration.

Coderre strong in Ahuntsic-Cartierville

Ahuntsic-Cartierville voters elected chose Coderre candidates in four of five races.

Pierre Desrochers, who Denis Coderre has previously tipped for the second-in-command role as Executive Committee Vice-Chairman, won by a mere nine votes over Martin Bazinet of Projet Montreal although the 3,477 to 3,468 total will surely be subject to recount. Interestingly, the candidate running for Michel Brule’s team, which aims to further francizise the city, received 681 votes in that district.

Incumbent mayor Pierre Gagnier won for the Coderre team by a 1,225-vote margin over PM candidate Pierre Bastien. Gagnier had been elected under the Projet Montreal banner in 2009 but quit the party a year later.

Coderre council candidate Harout Chitilian was returned to his Bordeaux-Cartierville seat with an impressive 2,578-vote majority, while Lorraine Page beat Coderre candidate Nathalie Hotte bit a tiny eight vote margin in Sault au Recollet. In contrast, Projet Montreal ‘s Emilie Thuillier ran away with the Ahuntsic race by a 1,800 vote majority.

Southwest borough

The Southwest borough saw one of the closest races, which saw incumbent borough mayor Benoit Dorais leading Projet Montreal challenger Jason Prince by a mere eight votes, with 21 of 224 voting stations yet to report as of Monday morning.

Projet Montreal councilors swept the two other council seats and two borough seats, with Anne-Marie Sigouin winning Saint-Paul–Émard by 557 votes, Craig Sauve winning Saint-Henri–La Petite-Bourgogne–Point-Saint-Charles by 430. The two borough council seats were taken by Alain Vaillancourt and Sophie Thiebaut, who won by a gaudy 1,872 votes.

Cote des Neiges-Notre Dame de Grace

In the city's largest borough voters were ready for some, but not too much change months after seeing their former borough mayor Michael Applebaum resign in disgrace and be charged with a litany of crimes.

Liberal MNA Russell Copeman of Coalition Montreal was elected borough mayor by over 1,000 votes over his nearest rival, Projet Montreal's Michael Simkin. Copeman, a former MNA for the area, won 29.5 per cent of the vote while Simkin scored 26.2. Andrew Ross of the Vrai changment pour Montreal and Kevin Copps of the Coderre Team both were the choice of over 22 per cent of voters.

Perennial councillor Marvin Rotrand was re-elected in Snowdon, but with the dissolution of Union Montreal he was now running under the Vrai Changement pour Montreal banner. Likewise interim borough mayor Lionel Perez was re-elected but is now a member of Team Denis Coderre. Rotrand beat Projet Montreal candidate Sarah Gutman by 982 votes.

Council veteran Helen Fotopulos, also with Team Coderre, was edged out by just 27 votes by Projet Montreal's Magda Popeanu in Côte-des-Neiges, a close vote that could likely lead to a possible recount.

Projet Montreal's Peter McQueen beat Melanie Joly's co-lister Marie-Claude Johnson by 648 votes, winning 38 per cent to 31 per cent in the NDG district.

In Darlington, Perez, who served briefly as borough mayor after Michael Applebaum left the post, won comfortably over the Coalition candidate Erik Hamon by a score of 36 per cent to 30 per cent.

Rounding out the roster was independent candidate Jeremy Searle, who returned to his former seat in Loyola with a 329-vote majority over Projet Montreal candidate Christian Arsenault. Searle, a maverick who briefly served on the Executive Commitee, attracted 23.3 percent of the vote in the seat.

Verdun a mixed bag

First-time candidate Jean-François Parenteau, a local entrepreneur who ran for Coderre's squad, beat out Projet Montreal candidate Mary Ann Davis by 530 votes to become Verdun borough mayor. Outgoing interim mayor Alain Tasse, who had long served on city council, came in fourth place, 2,000 votes behind.

High-profile first-timer Sterling Downey won the Desmarchais-Crawford district for the Projet Montreal, beating Coderre candidate Sebastien Dhavernas by 183 votes. Downey is, among other things, considered an authority on graffiti, skateboarding and hip hop music.

Manon Gauthier, who runs the Segal Centre, won the Champlain-Nuns’ Island seat for the Coderre team by 324 votes over Joly candidate Mathieu Belanger.

Marinacci back as mayor of Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève

Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève belonged to Melanie Joly, as voters sent lawyer Normand Marinacci, who had previously served as mayor prior to the municipal mergers, back to his old post with a 552-vote victory over incumben Richard Belanger, who ran under the banner of his eponymously-named party.

Joly candidates also won three of the four borough council seats for the area.

No opposition in several boroughs

Bergeron may have lost the race to become mayor, but his party will control three boroughs with very little opposition.

Residents of the Plateau-Mont Royal have re-elected a full slate of Projet Montreal candidates -- some new, some returning.

Borough Mayor Luc Ferrandez was handily re-elected with more than half of all votes in the borough.

Almost every Projet Montreal councillor in the Plateau received more than 50 per cent of votes in their districts, with the closest races still having leads of about 20 per centage points over their closest competitors.

The controversial changes that Ferrandez and his team made to the Plateau seems to have inspired residents of two other boroughs.

Rosemont-La Petite Patrie re-elected Francois Croteau as mayor, along with the full Projet Montreal slate.

The strongest support for Denis Coderre was in Montreal North, St. Laurent, and the eastern end of the city.

The Montreal North, St. Laurent and RDP-PAT boroughs residents elected the full Coderre slate.

Lachine and Anjou saw residents of those boroughs support every member of a borough-only team.

Every Team Anjou candidate won with more than 50 per cent of all ballots cast.

Residents of Lachine threw their support behind Team Dauphin Lachine, with 56 percent of voters choosing Claude Dauphin as borough mayor.

With all votes counted the entire Dauphin slate was elected.

Meanwhile LaSalle, St. Leonard, Ile Bizard-Ste Genevieve have borough councils that are extremely lopsided.

In LaSalle, the Team Barbe - Pro Action LaSalle saw the full slate elected with one exception: Monique Vallée is the lone opposition councillor.

The west island borough of Ile Bizard elected four out of five Team Melanie Joly candidates, including borough mayor. Eric Dugas of Team Richard Belanger is the sole opposition councillor.

St. Leonard has one opposition councillor, with the remainder of the borough council being members of Team Denis Coderre.

Coderre's long campaign

Coderre, who needed four elections before being elected at the federal level, was long considered the frontrunner in the race to become mayor of Montreal.

Two opinion polls showed Coderre had the most name recognition and also had the most support from voters.

Coderre teased Montrealers for months, playing coy about whether he would resign as a federal MP and run to become mayor of Montreal.

He confirmed his official intentions in May at a news conference in front of City Hall where he ended up sharing his stage with protesters from the social housing group FRAPRU.

His campaign platform was fairly straightforward: hire an Inspector General to investigate any project in the city, force civil servants to undergo security screenings, and lobby the provincial government for more powers for Montreal.

Coderre said he believes that, with 103 elected councillors, Montreal has too many elected officials and that number should reduced. He also wants to re-examine how the boroughs and central city interact with the agglomeration -- the municipalities on and around the Island of Montreal -- but did not provide any specifics as to how that would be accomplished.

Throughout the campaign he faced criticism from his competitors for being a populist with a lightweight campaign plank, and for picking up two dozen former members of Gerald Tremblay's Union Montreal as councillor candidates.

Coderre's strong support from voters made significant changes to Montreal's political landscape.

Louise Harel, who had run unsuccessfully for mayor under the Vision Montreal banner, decided she would run only to be a councillor. She ended up joining forces with Marcel Coté in the new Coalition Montreal, which also picked up incumbent Union Montreal candidates.

Projet Montreal's Bergeron frequently targeted Coderre as a lightweight and populist who was going to continue dragging Montreal's reputation through the mud.

In the final two weeks of the campaign those problems became serious and a Team Coderre candidate was forced to resign.

Robert Zambito stepped down after a media report that Zambito attempted to bribe city councillor Bernard Blanchet in 2010. Blanchet had filed a police report about Zambito's actions at the time, but was never informed about the progress of the investigation.