‘Brought new ideas,’ says Transition Montréal’s Craig Sauvé after finishing fourth in bid for mayor

In its first ever municipal election, Transition Montréal, the new progressive political party led by mayoral candidate Craig Sauvé, ended the night in fourth place with 8.5 per cent of the votes, around 11 p.m. even as counting continued.

“I think we changed the face of this election,” said the three-term city councillor. “I think we did influence positions that other parties had to take because we went in places they were afraid to go. That’s what courage is all about, that’s why we said with courage for Montreal,” he added.

Transition Montréal promoted a platform focused on improving affordable housing, public transportation, bike lanes, public safety, nightlife and access to affordable food.

It also proposed a higher tax-rate on single-family homes worth over 3.5 million dollars to be used to fund community organizations, social housing and initiatives to put an end to homelessness.

It promised electoral reforms, including the preferential ballot for the election of the mayor of Montreal and borough mayors as well as for Ville-Marie to have it owns mayor.

The party ran candidates in all 19 boroughs of Montreal.

In five different polls on voting intentions for Montreal mayor between August and October, Sauvé consistently received between five to eight per cent support, placing either third or fourth place behind candidates from the bigger parties.

Sauvé also ran for his Saint-Paul–Émard–Saint-Henri-Ouest city council seat. He was in the third place behind Project Montréal and Ensemble Montréal candidates.

Despite the loss, Sauvé said he was looking to the future.

“We’re here to stay, we’ve got an amazing base that we’ve been able to grow over the past few months,” Sauvé said.

“These things take time to grow. We’re a citizen-based movement, so we’re going to keep going and keep this Transition Montreal project moving forward,” he said.