Eric Allard Elected in Châteauguay

Former municipal councillor Eric Allard was elected mayor of Châteauguay on Sunday, November 7, winning 53% of the votes. He will be joined by seven of his party's eight councillors on the Châteauguay municipal council.

Translation by Renaud Médan 

Mr. Allard received 6,350 votes (53%), surpassing Nathalie Simon, who was mayor from 2009 to 2017. She received 3,359 votes (28%). Candidate Lucie Lamoureux finished with 2,166 votes (18%). 

The three mayoral candidates presented full teams of candidates in all municipal districts. Both Ms. Simon's and Ms. Lamoureux's parties bit the dust. None of their candidates were elected.

Only independent incumbent Councillor François Le Borgne held back the wave of Mr. Allard's party. He was re-elected for a second term in District 8.

The four incumbent councillors Mike Gendron, Lucie Laberge, Éric Corbeil and Barry Doyle were re-elected, while Marie-Louise Kerneis, Arlene Bryant and Luc Daoust are newcomers to municipal politics. 

"We feel tired this morning, but it's a good kind of fatigue, it's a great morning! I received almost 250 congratulatory messages and calls," comments Eric Allard, the city's new mayor. He is delighted with this overwhelming victory.

Low turnout 

Mr. Allard admits to being discouraged by the very low turnout of 32.6% in these elections. "I have difficulty rationalizing it, because municipal government is the closest thing there is to people and it’s where there can be an impact on their daily lives," he regrets.

For former mayor Nathalie Simon, the November 7 results are somewhat reminiscent of 2017, when no member of her team had been elected. Pierre-Paul Routhier's team, which included Mr. Allard and several candidates from his party, had swept all the seats except for that of Mr. Le Borgne. 

"I learned that it is not the end of the world to lose an election, commented Ms. Simon the day after the election. But I am dismayed by the low turnout this year."

Barely one in three voters cast their vote this year, which is the lowest turnout since the early 2000s. Between 2003 and 2021, turnout rates ranged from 44 to 51 percent in Châteauguay. 

The candidate said she heard dissatisfaction from citizens when it came to the team in place during her door-to-door campaign. "For me, the fact that people are not going out to vote is a great defeat," she said. She believes that the recent federal election and the pandemic may have contributed to lower turnout. 

The door-to-door challenge

Lucie Lamoureux, leader of the Impact Châteauguay Party, said she was disappointed with the election results. "We entered this race to win," she said. "However, we could not do as much door-to-door as we would have liked and that’s the key to success, especially since people did not know me."

Lamoureux explains this as a result of her candidates’ busy schedules, most of whom work. “We had windows of a few hours to go and meet citizens, and the citizens had to be around when we went by. That was really our biggest challenge, I would say," she said. Maybe I should have decided to go alone instead of waiting and accompanying the councillors, but what's done is done." The first-time candidate says she won't be running for municipal office again.

(With Jules Gauthier and Paula Dayan-Perez)