Vote Soraya!Save Montreal!

After eight years of tens of millions wasted on green projects like bike paths, road closures to cars and pedestrian-only commercial arteries, the elimination of thousands of parking spaces, the ruin of downtown which now has almost a third of storefronts empty decimating the city’s tax base, rising and inequitable property taxes, rising and unsustainable business taxes, failure to attract investment, license for Islamists to run rampant in our streets making citizens scared and paralyzing locomotion and commercial activity, any reasonable person can rightly conclude that whatever Projet Montreal’s “Projet” for this city was, it has been a complete and abject failure. When you vote this Sunday, vote for Ensemble Montreal’s Soraya Martinez Ferrada and her candidates. It may be our last chance for a generation to save this city.

The election is not simply about personalities. It is about Projet Montreal’s Mayoral candidate Luc Rabouin staying wedded to Valerie Plante’s policies with a layer of antisemitism covering them all. He demonstrated it last week when he signed the “Palestine Pact” which propagates the blood libel of Israeli “apartheid” and called for all ties between Montreal and Israel to be severed.

Soraya Martinez Ferrada, former federal Minister for Quebec Economic Development, offers a results-oriented and evidence-based platform committed to economic vitality, listening to Montreal’s business community, hearing what citizens want and unwedded to dogma for the sake of dogma which was the hallmark of the Projet years. As an example, when she sees that the Ville Marie borough — our downtown — has 440,000 cars come in on a daily basis against no more than 26,000 bicycles at the height of summer ( the city’s numbers) she won’t make policy for the bicyclists just for the sake of it.

She puts the economy front and centre — especially downtown, where the city’s economic engine has collapsed. She has called for strengthening ties with business, research and innovation sectors — especially in AI, cybersecurity and pharmaceuticals — through an Economic Coordination Forum. She wants to help local merchants and commercial arteries by reducing terrace fees, easing permits, and improving street and public-space conditions including parking and car lanes. She is addressing the downtown devastation as a priority rather than treating it as a side-issue.

By contrast, Rabouin emphasises ecological transition, housing and mobility framed in theoretical long-term structural shifts rather than offering immediate economic solutions. That matters in a moment when the city’s businesses, renters -70% of Montreal residents — and young workers are squeezed beyond reason.

Martinez Ferrada has pledged $100 million to acquire and renovate buildings for new small-scale emergency shelters and affordable housing across the city. She will also prohibit commercial short-term rentals and strengthen inspections to preserve housing supply. She will also make reduction of permit waiting times for developers a priority. And she supports community housing initiatives with direct investment in grassroots organisations.

Rabouin, on the other hand still sticks to Plante’s failed “20-20-20” bylaw (requiring 20% affordable/social/family units in new developments) that has been a barricade against developers. He will do nothing to reduce the regulatory burdens and offers no relief to make much needed immediate housing projects viable and incentivize developers and development.

If we really want to help our vulnerable and mobilize housing development now, Martinez Ferrada plan offers a clear direction. Martinez Ferrada’s approach is aggressive, non-ideological and more focused on getting things done quickly and in partnership with citizens and businesses.

Plante and Rabouin’s brand of green, public transit-centric policies are disconnected from the lived concerns of Montrealers, especially those juggling jobs, caregiving, transit delays and economic insecurity. Even the vaunted REM project has been hopelessly delayed — particularly in the West Island — and where it does run often breaks down making it unreliable as a transit option. Projet’s decision to cut 80% of parking around the West Island REM stations and its calls for “car pooling” to get to the stations is a guarantee they will not be used much. Martinez Ferrada was right when she said Rabouin was, “disconnected from the challenges facing the city.”

Montreal stands at a crossroads. The city needs more than incremental change; it needs purposeful, responsive leadership to navigate our housing crisis, economic slump, and infrastructure backlog. Soraya Martinez Ferrada offers that leadership with a vision rooted in collaboration with business and community, grounded in real-world impact, and ready to get results from day one.

So when you mark your ballot Sunday, ask yourself if you want more of the same — or do you want to save Montreal by choosing unifying and grounded change? On Sunday Vote Soraya. Save Montreal.