Ensemble Montréal took a victory lap at Montreal city hall on Monday after it won the byelection this weekend in Île-Bizard-Sainte-Geneviève.
“We’re proud as a team,” said Aref Salem, Ensemble Montréal’s leader.
The party’s candidate, Doug Hurley, won by a landslide.
“The reason we got four votes out five is because the population backed our ideas about being more community involved,” Hurley said.
Hurley says his priorities include the completion of the Jacques-Bizard Bridge, and implementing mitigation measures to deal with traffic chaos in the area.
“Right now, living in those conditions, we need more security, help with traffic control,” Hurley said.
Hurley has been a resident of Île-Bizard for 37 years. He is president of the Île-Bizard Optimist Club, a community organization. He was a police officer for more than three decades and is now a police instructor at John Abbott College.
“When we hear of an individual that has devoted most of his adult life to community in every capacity, certainly that can benefit us here, we can collaborate and we will collaborate on issues such as the floods,” said Jim Beis, borough mayor of Pierrefonds-Roxboro.
Hurley’s party says winning the byelection with 78 per cent of votes sends a message that the tide is turning in Ensemble Montréal’s favour.
“The numbers are there, for sure,” Salem said.
Political analyst Karim Boulos says the results were expected.
“I’m not sure if it’s really an upset,” Boulos said.
Hurley is taking over from Ensemble Montréal’s Stéphane Côté, who stepped down from his post in August citing health reasons.
However, Boulos says Ensemble Montréal now has an opportunity to capitalize on the attention the win is giving the party, “and drive the points home that while it’s great to have certain policies for the city centre, that they don’t necessarily apply to areas that are just slightly removed from downtown.”
Ensemble Montréal still has two years to do that.
Hurley will be in power until 2025 when the next municipal elections will take place.
“We will be the party to govern Montreal,” Salem said.
No one from Projet Montréal was available to speak. But in a press release sent Sunday, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante congratulated Hurley for his victory and promised to work with him for the citizens of Île-Bizard.