Mayor Valérie Plante's party has picked up a new seat on city council after two municipal by-elections held on Sunday.
In a tight race, voters in Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles narrowly elected Projet Montréal's Caroline Bourgeois to replace Chantal Rouleau as the borough's mayor. While in office, Rouleau had been a member of the opposition party Ensemble Montréal.
Toute l’équipe de @projetmontreal est fière d’avoir pu compter sur @nadineraymond22 comme candidate. Merci, Nadine, pour cette campagne authentique, énergique et intègre - à ton image - menée dans l’intérêt des citoyens et citoyennes de #SaintMichel. #polmtl
— Valérie Plante (@Val_Plante) December 17, 2018
The outcome in the race was not clear until all 299 polling stations had reported their results, with Bourgeois and Ensemble's Manuel Guedes trading small leads back and forth for an hour and a half. Bourgeois won by a margin of 356 votes, taking 47.9% to Guedes's 44.7%. Independent candidate Marius Minier placed a distant third with 6.0%.
In the city council district of Saint-Michel, meanwhile, Ensemble Montréal held the seat vacated by Frantz Benjamin in a wild-card three-way race. Ensemble's Josué Corvil won the seat with 39.6% of the vote over Projet Montréal's Naydine Raymond's 32.4% and independent Reginald Pierre's 26.0%.
@lionelperez et toute notre équipe souhaitent la bienvenue à @jcorvil dans notre équipe d'https://t.co/YE2m17BPwI Félicitations! #polmtl #winning pic.twitter.com/EnEMWk5OzX
— Ensemble Montréal (@EnsembleMtl) December 17, 2018
Turnout in Saint-Michel was just shy of 11%, while turnout in Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles was slightly higher, at 13.7%.
The two seats became vacant earlier this fall after the provincial election, with Rouleau and Benjamin both being elected to the National Assembly, as members of the CAQ and Liberal Party, respectively.
Having gained the borough mayoralty in RDP-PAT from the opposition, Projet Montréal will now hold 34 seats on council to Ensemble Montréal's 20.