How Valérie Plante beat Denis Coderre to be re-elected mayor of Montreal, in one map

Valérie Plante won the Nov. 7 Montreal mayoral election with more than half of all ballots cast, in a resounding victory over rival and predecessor Denis Coderre.

Plante received a total of 52 per cent of the vote, 13 percentage points more than Coderre.

In the 2017 election, Plante got 51 per cent of the vote compared with 46 per cent for Coderre.

The election saw Plante strengthen her popularity in Projet Montréal's traditional strongholds such as Plateau-Mont-Royal, while also making gains further from the city centre.

The interactive map below shows how the mayoral candidates performed at polling stations between last week's election and the one in 2017.

Use the slider to compare the two elections.

Click here to see a full-screen version.

In Plateau-Mont-Royal, Plante received an average of 60 to 70 per cent of the votes in polling stations in 2017. She did even better this time around, netting nearly 90 per cent in some areas.

The pattern held in other largely French-speaking areas, including Rosemont, Villeray and Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.

"Language played a big role in the city election even if it's a provincial issue, mostly because of the debate over Bill 96," said Daniel Béland, a professor of political science at McGill University and director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, referring to the province's proposed language law.

"Plante was the only candidate who really emphasized the need to protect the French language."

In areas with more English-speakers, Plante didn't do as well.

In the waning days of the campaign, Coderre played up his commitment to defending the English-speaking community in a bid to fend off Holness, who had promised to fight Bill 96 if elected mayor.

"Coderre made forceful statements on the need to protect services to anglophones," Béland said.

Holness, who ran with his new party, Mouvement Montréal, finished a distant third with seven per cent of the vote.

But his messages around language, cultural diversity and reforming policing appear to have resonated among some voters.

He won most votes at a smattering of polling stations, mostly in anglophone and allophone-heavy parts of Pierrefonds, LaSalle and Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (the bright green areas on the map).

The Ahuntsic difference

Plante's most visible gains were in Ahuntsic-Cartierville, where most polling stations flipped from Coderre compared to 2017.

To Béland, this is a testament not only to Plante's strong showing with francophones, but also among allophones.

In Ahuntsic, 65 per cent of the population speaks French at home, and 25 speak a non-official language.

"Plante ran a much more diverse roster of candidates," Béland said.

"She was criticized during her first term for not paying enough attention to diversity and discrimination and she made a big effort to make her party more diverse. This may have paid off in more diverse areas."

Similar changes could be seen in parts of Côte-des-Neiges and the Saint-Laurent borough, where the population is also highly diverse.

Boroughs like Montréal-Nord, Saint-Léonard and Rivière-des-Prairies—Pointe-aux-Trembles remained loyal to Coderre, who was a Liberal MP representing that area.

These are also areas that tend to vote strongly Liberal, and where anglophone populations are higher, Béland said.