The polls have closed in more than 1,100 municipalities across Quebec. Throughout the province voters cast their ballots, to choose their municipal leaders.

In Montreal voter turnout was 41.75 per cent, less than the 2013 voter turnout of 43 per cent.

A total of 3,380 polling stations in 470 voting sites were set up across the city.

103 positions were filled, including Mayor of Montreal, 18 borough mayors, 46 city councilors and 38 borough councilors. 

How to vote

By law, employers must give employees at least four consecutive hours while the polls are open on Election Day so they can go and vote. 

To check which polling station you need to show up at, click here. The deadline for adding or correcting your name on the electoral list passed on Oct. 17.

In order to cast your ballot, you must present one of the following: a health insurance card, driver’s license, Canadian passport, certificate of Indian status or Canadian Forces identity card. Voters should also bring the reminder letter they received in the mail over the last few weeks which could speed up the process.

Voters can find a list of candidates they can vote for in their riding on the mycitymyvote.ca website. 

Kids can participate

Did you know children can now vote alongside their parents? This year, Montrealers under the legal voting age can still participate in democracy at 19 youth polling stations that have been set up across the city. Kids will be asked to cast a ballot in favour of four responses to the question “In Montreal, what’s most important to you?”

To find the youth polling station closest to you, click here.

 

Montreal’s mayoralty race

There were eight candidates running for Mayor of Montreal this year, but the two main mayoral candidates are incumbent Denis Coderre, and Projet Montreal leader Valerie Plante. It’s been a heated race, between two very different candidates, with very different leadership styles, who have been working to convince voters to either stay the course or vote for change.

Opinion polls have suggested Coderre and Plante are in a dead heat in the race to become the next Mayor of Montreal. On Sunday both said they were nervous, but confident to see the results.

Coderre, a former federal Liberal cabinet minister, boasts of creating billions of dollars in investment in infrastructure and tens of thousands of new jobs over the past four years. He’s also seen by many as being arrogant, and a strongman-type leader who makes snap decisions.

On Saturday Coderre defended himself against frequent accusations of arrogance.

“People talk about arrogance, I call that determination,” he said. “Sometimes we have to show more humility, maybe. But authenticity provides you the right to make mistakes. With me, what you see is what you get.”

Plante is a relative newcomer to politics, who became leader of Projet Montreal last December.

She started the race as an underdog but her campaign surprised many as she gained momentum, rising in the polls and even taking a slight lead on Coderre.

Just four months ago, 66 per cent of Montrealers didn’t know her name, which was one of her biggest challenges during the race.

While making her final pitch to voters on Saturday she contrasted her relative newness to politics to Coderre, saying she wouldn’t be the first less-experienced candidate to triumph over a more established candidate in recent history.

“This is exactly what the Conservatives said to Justin Trudeau and now he’s prime minister of Canada,” she said. “The population right now is answering very positively to the fact that I’m not a… politician.” 

Issues

Both candidates have said it’s been a hard-fought campaign. 

Coderre has run on a campaign built mainly on his administration’s accomplishments and projects already in the works. He said he's the one with the experience and the endorsement of all the major Montreal newspapers behind him. 

He kept his promise from his 2013 campaign to name an inspector general to oversee the awarding of city contracts and he reduced the percentage of the budget dedicated to salaries and benefits to 44 per cent from 51 per cent in his first mandate, saving millions.

Coderre also fought and won more power for the city from the provincial government and has been able to bring federalists, Quebec sovereignists and former political foes into his team.

He’s known outside the city for helping stop TransCanada's Energy East Pipeline project, which he said would have created an unsupportable risk to the province's waterways.

He’s also known as the man who dumped billions of litres of raw sewage into the same waterways in order to give time and space for repairs to the city's underground infrastructure.

Projet Montreal has also brought benefits to Montrealers, particularly regarding its greening strategy with methods for redesigning sidewalks and alleyways to make room for flowers and other plants. 

Plante’s campaign has placed mobility and public transportation as top priority issues, with a signature proposal of building a new line to the metro in the next five years - the 29 stop Pink Line would run from Lachine, through the downtown area all the way up to Montreal-North and Plante has estimated its cost at over $5 billion.

However, the Pink Line and other expensive proposals has led Plante's critics to accuse her of idealist, magical thinking. 

Click here and consult the drop-down menu at the bottom of the page for a complete list of candidates in across the city.

Those casting ballots outside of the city of Montreal can find information at the Elections Quebec site.

Follow the CTV Montreal site for all the latest updates on the elections.

 With files fromTthe Canadian Press