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

Iman KassamCTV News Montreal Videojournalist
@ImanKassam Contact
Published Friday, October 29, 2021 6:45PM EDT

MONTREAL -- Whatever happens over the next two weeks, Montreal has already taken a new step with its municipal election. There are more diverse candidates than ever -- people from ethnic and religious minorities, and people with disabilities. 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.
Right now, just seven of 103 municipal elected officials aren't white, but Montreal is one of the most diverse and multicultural cities in Canada.
There's power in numbers, agreed Laurence Parent, who is running in the Plateau for Projet Montreal and who uses a 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.
But things have improved over the years, a lot. “I think we need to be everywhere," she told CTV News. "We still need activists, we need people in academia, and we need people in politics.”