The city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, held a municipal election at the same time as numerous other municipalities in Quebec, on November 1, 2009. Voters elected the Mayor of Montreal, Montreal City Council, and the mayors and councils of each of the city's boroughs.

Quick Facts 65 seats in Montreal City Council, Turnout ...

2009 Montreal municipal election

← 2005 November 2, 2009 2013 →
65 seats in Montreal City Council
Turnout	39.44%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Gérald Tremblay Louise Harel Richard Bergeron Party Union Montreal Vision Montreal Projet Montréal Leader since 2001 2009 2004 Leader's seat Mayor Maisonneuve–Longue-Pointe Jeanne-Mance Last election 47 seats, 53.74% 14 seats, 36.33% 1 seat, 8.53% Seats before 52 9 1 Seats won 38 16 10 Seat change 14 7 9 Popular vote 159,020 137,301 106,768 Percentage 37.90% 32.73% 25.45% Swing -15.84% -3.60% +16.92%
Mayor before election Gérald Tremblay Union Montreal Elected Mayor Gérald Tremblay Union Montreal

Close

The election became plagued with allegations of corruption and mafia involvement in city contracts.^[1]

Despite being assailed with accusations of corruption, incumbent Mayor Gérald Tremblay led his Union Montréal party to a third victory, although with reduced standings in city council. Union's seat totals remained firm especially in the boroughs merged into the city in 2002; it retained complete control of eight boroughs and near-complete control of three more.

Vision Montréal, led by former Quebec minister of municipal affairs Louise Harel, ran a campaign targeting the mayor on ethics. However, its campaign was blindsided by a scandal involving its second-in-command and former leader Benoit Labonté, who dropped out of the race. Vision increased its council standing but was unable to defeat the mayor. It won complete control of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and majorities in three other borough councils.

Third party Projet Montréal increased sharply in popularity. An Angus Reid poll ^[2] shortly prior to the election put its leader Richard Bergeron neck-and-neck (32%) with the two other main candidates (34% for Harel, 30% for Tremblay). He would finally come in third, but the party increased from just one seat at the previous election to ten council seats, two borough mayors, four borough councillors, and complete control of the borough of Le Plateau-Mont-Royal. Besides its main issue of public transit and urban planning, the party emphasized ethics, running its campaign on just $200,000.

Nomination was open until October 2 at 4:30 p.m.

Johanna Raso - Financial consultant, former lecturer at McGill University, published articles. She was invited to run for borough mayor by both major parties, Union Montreal and Vision Montreal. She declined both invitations, despite campaign support from the business community.