Voters in Verdun split their choices between all the candidates who represented change.
“Everyone in Verdun wants change and our position is not so far from that of Projet Montreal or even Mélanie Joly,” says Jean-Fançois Parenteau, who is now mayor-elect of the borough. “As long as there’s change we’re happy. During our first year, we’re going to hold an estates general consultation to determine a new combined vision for the borough.”
Parenteau, with Équipe Denis Coderre, got 5,134 votes, for a total of 24.74%.
Mary Ann Davis put on a good fight, with 22% of the vote. Mourad Bendjennet came in third with 17.56%. Current councillors Alain Tassé, André Savard and Andrée Champoux came in fourth, fifth and sixth with 7,133 votes total, or 44.4%, split between them.
Verdun Council Split
Manon Gauthier from Équipe Coderre was elected city councilor for Nun’s Island-Champlain. Projet Montreal’s Sterling Downey will represent Desmarchais-Crawford on city council. Gauthier beat Mélanie Joly’s candidate, Mathieu Belanger, by 329 votes. Downey beat Sébastien Dhavernas by 226 votes. All 101 polls were counted.
The borough council is also split with Équipe Coderre’s Marie-Eve Brunet and Pierre L’Heureux representing Nun’s Island-Champlain and Projet Montréal’s Luc Gagnon and Marie-Andrée Mauger representing Desmarchais-Champlain. All four beat their closest competitors by less than 500 votes.
Luc Gagnon beat Michelle Tremblay from Équipe Coderre by only 104 votes, so that seat will likely face a recount.
A total of 47,677 people were registered to vote in Verdun, although less than half cast a ballot. The mayoralty campaign was decided by 21,335 people, for a turnout of 44.75%. Scrutineers rejected 583 ballots. The turnout in Nun’s Island-Champlain was a slightly higher 45.55% than in Desmarchais-Crawford, where it was 43.6%.
Note: This article also appears on page 2 of The Suburban City Edition.
