Sunday's election brought some big changes to City Hall, but in other ways things have stayed the same.
Of the 103 elected officials, only seven are visible minorities. That number is up from four.
"I have never had a model in politics that was Asian - that was an Asian woman" Cathy Wong, elected as a Ville-Marie borough councillor told CTV Montreal. "What we are seeing today is that we don't have a municipal council that is representative of the reality of Montreal."
About one-third of Montrealers belong to a visible minority, compared to only six per cent on councillors in City Hall.
Because of this the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations, CRARR, has said it is unlikely Mayor-elect Valerie Plante's executive council will reflect the city it represents, which could be a problem when it comes to offering various services.
"People from diverse or different backgrounds have to be involved in those discussions and have to be present when we debate and adopt new policies" Wong said.
In all, 21 per cent of the candidates who ran in this year's municipal election were visible minorities.
Wong said immigrants may have different needs when it comes to public transit or social housing and therefore those different voices need to be heard.
One of the issues is that white men are more often to come forward and enter politics on their own. Researchers found women and minorities often run only when asked.
"Parties need to do a much better job of reaching out to visible minority candidates and visible minorities need to start asking to run for political office as opposed to being approached" said Chris Erl, researcher at McGill University.
Until then Wong admits it may be her job to recruit more minorities, just as Denis Coderre recruited her. She added it won't be an easy job as minorities often feel as though they're stuck on the outside looking in when it comes to municipal politics.