Parc-Ex councillor for 27 years loses her post by six votes

Projet Montreal’s Elvira Carhuallanqui beat Ensemble Montreal Parc-Extension incumbent Mary Deros in the district by six votes in Sunday's election.

As the dust settles on the 2025 municipal elections, a now-former city councillor might be on the outside looking in for the first time in almost three decades.

Ensemble Montreal Parc-Extension incumbent Mary Deros was first elected Nov. 1, 1998.

On Sunday, Projet Montreal’s Elvira Carhuallanqui beat Deros in the district by six votes.

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With 211 rejected ballots, the results could well change, but as it stands, the 74-year-old immigrant from Samos, Greece, who has represented Vision Montreal, Union Montreal, Equipe Denis Coderre and Ensemble, and has seen six mayors come and go, will not serve under a seventh.

Along with Cote-Saint-Luc incumbent Mitchell Brownstein, who lost by one vote, Deros is asking for a recount, saying that there were obstacles to voting, such as inaccessible polling stations and voter cards left in apartment building lobbies during the Canada Post strike.

“It’s very disappointing,” said Deros, who blames poor management on polling day. “Some people are coming in not knowing what was on the floor. There were no names on those envelopes, just an address.”

She is one of the city councillors or borough mayors who lost by under 100 votes.

In the on-island suburb of Montreal East, Audrey Bordeleau and Julie Larivée tied with 81 votes apiece for the city council seat in District one.

Here’s a look at some of the closest races across Montreal:

*Numbers are valid as of Nov. 4, 2025 and may change in recounts.

Deros was first elected under former mayor Pierre Bourque and served on his executive committee. She sought a federal candidacy for the Liberal Party in 2007 in the Papineau riding but lost to Justin Trudeau.

Projet-strong borough

The Villeray--Saint-Michel--Parc-Extension borough bucked the overall trend on Monday night. While Ahuntsic-Cartierville (Maude Théroux-Séguin), CDN-NDG (Stéphanie Valenzuela), Lachine (Julie-Pascale Provost), Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve (Chantal Gagnon), RDP-PAT (Denis Pelletier), and Ville-Marie (Soraya Martinez Ferrada) flipped from Projet to Ensemble, Projet Montreal’s Jean-François Lalonde held onto the post for the party, soundly beating Ensemble Montreal’s Sylvain Gariépy by 5,776 votes.

Projet also held onto the Francois-Perrault (Sylvain Ouellet) and Villeray (Martine Musau Muelle) districts, and Josué Corvil won Ensemble’s only district by 950 votes.

Heavy on issues, low on turnout

Villeray--Saint-Michel--Parc-Extension is a borough that has been central in several contentious issues. Social housing versus development, bike paths and rat overpopulation all came to the forefront of discussion for local residents in recent years.

However, voter turnout, 37.33 per cent, was just under a percentage point over Montreal’s dismal average.

The low turnout may suggest that voters in the borough (and elsewhere) weren’t as motivated for change as assumed.

Apathy is Boring executive director Sam Reusch said that there is often an echo chamber environment that may distort perceptions of public opinion.

“When a small minority of people are being amplified, and it’s always going to be the ones that are angry, because that’s what catches on in the algorithm,” she said. “It has this capacity to influence the way that we talk about our politics.”

--with reporting from CTV News Montreal journalist Angela MacKenzie