Montreal election has more diverse candidates than ever, and they agree on one thing

Montreal -

Regardless of who wins the upcoming election, the new administration could be the most diverse we’ve ever seen, with a record number of first-time candidates.

LGBTQ+ candidates are running in the three major parties. The most multicultural borough in Montreal may get its first non-white city councillor. And there are more racialized candidates than ever before.

Many say they arrived at the idea of running after experiencing racism or discrimination and deciding they could help change that for others.

“People of colour are starting to understand that banding together in certain situations will increase the probability they’ll attain whatever the goal is," said Joel DeBellefeuille, a first-time candidate running for Mouvement Montreal in the Loyola district of NDG.

Even though Montreal remains one of the most diverse cities in Canada, in the last municipal election, just seven of 103 municipal elected officials were visible minorities. 

But things are changing and there's power in numbers, agreed Laurence Parent, who is running in the Plateau for Projet Montreal.

She has spent most of her life fighting to access public spaces in her wheelchair. When she first moved to Montreal, “I realized, oh, I’m not able to take the metro, not able to go at this bar with my friends, to that restaurant, or to go to CEGEP easily," she recalled.

“I think we need to be everywhere," she told CTV News.

“Women, racialized people, visible people, we need to be everywhere. So we still need activists, we need people in academia, and we need people in politics.”

Watch the video above for Iman Kassam's in-depth report on the new candidates.