montreal one of three quebec municipalities where mayoral candidates have running mates
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left to right: montreal 2025 mayoral candidates gilbert thibodeau, jean-françois kacou, soraya martinez ferrada, luc rabouin and craig sauvé.
montreal gazette files
only mayoral hopefuls in three quebec municipalities — montreal, gatineau and quebec city — are permitted to have a running mate who could win a seat on city council for them if they lose the race for mayor.
in montreal, all of the party leaders vying for mayor have designated a running mate in this election, meaning that any of the losing mayoral candidates could still get onto city council if their running mate wins their electoral district.
“the concept of a running mate (often called dual candidacy) exists only in municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants that have adopted a bylaw to that effect,” said gabriel sauvé-lesiège, spokesperson for élections québec.
“this is the case only in montreal, quebec city and gatineau. with such a bylaw, a mayoral candidate can also run in a district, with the help of a running mate.”
the names of the mayoral candidate and the council candidate designated as the running mate are listed together on the ballot for the district where the running mate is a candidate.
a running mate pledges to cede their council seat, should they win it, to the mayoral candidate of their party, should the latter lose their race.
but the losing mayoral candidate isn’t obligated to accept the seat.
for example, when gérald tremblay defeated two-term montreal mayor pierre bourque in the 2001 megacity election, bourque accepted his running mate’s council seat and became leader of the opposition.
in 2017, defeated incumbent denis coderre refused the council seat won by running mate chantal rossi in a district of the montreal north borough and quit municipal politics. rossi became the city councillor for the district. coderre also bowed out when he lost the mayoral race in 2021.
here are the montreal mayoral candidates and their running mates in the nov. 2 election:
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jean-françois kacou, futur montréal: running mate is kathlen jean, city council candidate in sainte-marie district, ville-marie borough.
soraya martinez ferrada, ensemble montréal: running mate is alexandre devaux-guizani, city council candidate in de maisonneuve—longue-pointe district, mercier—hochelaga-maisonneuve borough.
luc rabouin, projet montréal: running mate is maeva vilain, city council candidate in de lorimier district, plateau mont-royal borough.
craig sauvé, transition montréal: running mate is samah khandker, city council candidate in saint-paul—émard—saint-henri-ouest district, sud-ouest borough.
gilbert thibodeau, action montréal: running mate is alain nault, city council candidate in de louis-riel district, mercier—hochelaga-maisonneuve borough.
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