Looking ahead to 2025 Montreal municipal election

A municipal election is on the horizon and that means that Montreal will have a new mayor and administration taking over at City Hall in November 2025. In the coming months, Montrealers will see new faces emerge vying to become the city’s 46th mayor. 

“People are waiting. I don’t think we’re going to see any announcements of mayoral candidates until well into March, April, or May,” said Karim Boulos, a political analyst.

“I think they’re going to want to see how they can essentially beat Projet’s candidate because right now the frontrunner is Projet Montréal.”

Projet Montréal will elect a new leader for the party in March as mayor Valérie Plante announced that she will not run for a third term.

Some familiar names within the party are already leadership candidates like borough mayors Maja Vodanovic, Gracia Kasoki Katahwa, and Luc Rabouin. 

“Mr. Rabouin is obvious because he’s on the executive committee, he’s got a lot of airtime in the media, he’s got a lot of time in municipal council to speak on issues of housing and infrastructure. And so I think that he’s a likely candidate, obviously likely successor,” explained Boulos. 

Meanwhile, Ensemble Montréal, the official opposition, has yet to announce the timeline for their leadership race. Their plans to select a new leader on February 16 were postponed indefinitely to allow time for more potential candidates to come forward. 

“It’s a smart move on their part because they want to see who they’re up against,” said Boulos.

“I think people will present candidates based on winnability.”

Boulos anticipates that after Projet Montréal selects its new leader, some well-known names could enter the mayoral race with the possibility of a new party emerging. 

“Now, depending on who the new leader is, will make or you know, break some people’s opportunities to run against that leader. If somebody is seen as a very strong candidate for Projet, it might scare off some would-be potential mayors and they might decide to wait for the next round, but if you get somebody there who’s maybe less popular than you know, by comparison to Valerie Plante, anyone will be less popular. It might attract some people,” explained Boulos.

In downtown Montreal, people walking along Sainte-Catherine Street shared their thoughts on who could be potential mayoral candidates.

“Maybe Denis Coderre if he came back. He has a chance. He fought the last time, he lost,” said Sébastien McArdle.

“I’m sorry, I have no idea,” added Philippe.

“I would say maybe Luc Poirier. Luc Poirier is a great entrepreneur and he’s super smart. He has success in all his businesses,” said François Turgeon.

By summer, Boulos adds we should know all the candidates before they enter campaign mode for the November 2 election. 

“I suspect there will be jockeying, positioning, name calling as we always expect in politics, but no real campaigning until likely around August or even September,” Boulos explained.