The battle for Montreal’s top job is officially underway.
With Valerie Plante’s eight-year tenure as mayor of Montreal coming to an end, the city’s 2025 municipal election campaign kicked off on Friday, September 19. Montrealers will head to the polls on November 2 to choose who takes over at city hall, giving candidates just six weeks to make their case.
So far, three candidates have emerged as frontrunners: Luc Rabouin for Projet Montréal, Soraya Martinez Ferrada for Ensemble Montréal, and Craig Sauvé for Transition Montréal.
Each has rolled out a platform outlining where they want to take the city, and the differences could reshape everything from housing policy to public transit.
Here’s a closer look at what exactly they’re promising.
Luc Rabouin (Projet Montréal)
Luc Rabouin is currently mayor of Plateau-Mont-Royal, president of the executive council of the City of Montreal, and, as of March 2025, leader of Projet Montréal. He was selected as Valérie Plante’s successor when she confirmed she would not run again.
Rabouin’s platform is built around four priorities: housing and homelessness; accelerating the ecological transition; developing Montréal-Est (the eastern sectors), and running a more rigorous, high-performance administration.
What he’s promising:
- Introduce social pricing for public transit: people earning $30,000 or less would pay student rates (about $62.75/month). Aims to help roughly 175,000 Montrealers
- Better coordination of construction sites to reduce delays, shorten durations and avoid cost overruns
- Introducing a tax on large advertising billboards to fund local cultural activities
- Create non-market housing “so that every family has a decent and affordable roof over their heads”
- Develop a more efficient public transport network with high-performance buses that serve all neighbourhoods
- Improved green infrastructure and better ecological policies
Soraya Martinez Ferrada (Ensemble Montréal)
Soraya Martinez Ferrada is a Chilean-born former federal MP and cabinet minister who became leader of Ensemble Montréal in February 2025. With roots in community organizing in Saint-Michel, she has centred her campaign on housing and municipal services.
While Ensemble Montréal’s website lays out specific plans for each borough, Martinez Ferrada’s platform is built around six central priorities, which she describes as necessary to “put Montreal back on track.”
What she’s promising:
- Tackling the housing crisis by accelerating non-market housing and using city tools more effectively
- Making transportation safer and more efficient, including better coordination of construction sites
- Improving cleanliness across the city, from downtown streets to local parks
- Strengthening public safety to ensure neighbourhoods feel secure and welcoming
- Reducing homelessness through coordinated city action
- Managing the city with greater rigour and efficiency, cutting through red tape and streamlining services
Craig Sauvé (Transition Montréal)
Craig Sauvé has represented Saint-Henri–Petite-Bourgogne–Pointe-Saint-Charles on city council since 2013. A long-time advocate for public transit and active transportation, he launched Transition Montréal in July 2025 as a new political option outside of the city’s two dominant parties.
Sauvé’s campaign emphasizes fairness, transparency, and reform, with a focus on changing how the city is governed.
What he’s promising:
- Overhauling Montreal’s electoral system with preferential ballots for mayoral races and proportional representation at council
- Establish a municipal civil service to respond to social emergencies like mental health and homelessness, and shift resources toward prevention instead of street stops.
- Make school zones safer: add traffic-calming features, and close certain roads during pick-up and drop-off hours.
- Protect nightlife and culture by appointing a “mayor of the night,” provide clearer rules for bars and venues, and support soundproofing for cultural spaces.
- The creation of “Infra-MTL,” a municipal committee that would oversee and manage the construction of sidewalks, speed bumps, curb extensions, paving, and bike lanes
- Open community food markets in neighbourhoods that don’t have affordable grocery options within walking distance.
- Tax the “ultra-rich”: create a progressive tax on residential properties over $3.5 million and $5 million, with all revenue dedicated to housing and homelessness.
Transition Montréal website
