Soraya Martinez Ferrada, leader of Ensemble Montréal, will become Montreal’s next mayor, CBC News has projected.

Martinez Ferrada, who is of Chilean descent, makes history as the first racialized person to be elected mayor of Montreal.

Following her win Sunday night, she leaned into her slogan “Listen and Act” — a nod to the criticism against Projet Montréal that it failed to consult with residents.

Martinez Ferrada thanked Plante for breaking a glass ceiling in the city as the first woman mayor, before acknowledging that Montrealers have now sent a “powerful message” by electing a racialized woman.

“We are here tonight because thousands of Montrealers believe in a better city — a city that truly belongs to everyone,” she said.

Her opponent, Luc Rabouin, announced he would be stepping down as the leader of his party, Projet Montréal.

From MP to municipal politics

Martinez Ferrada moved to Montreal as a political refugee in 1980, fleeing the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet when she was only eight years old.

The former MP is the second woman to become mayor of the city, after outgoing mayor Valérie Plante. She resigned from Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government in February, shortly after which she announced her run for the leadership of Ensemble Montréal.

“The desire to serve the city that welcomed the young refugee from Chile, to serve the city that gave me my start in politics, is one that is too important for me to ignore,” Martinez Ferrada said in her resignation letter addressed to Trudeau.

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source cbcnews