City vs borough councillors: what’s the difference?
Le Devoir has a piece on the distinction between city councillors and borough councillors and what their jobs involve.
It’s mentioned here, but bears repeating, that we get several ballots in the municipal election, but there’s no obligation to vote a straight party line. The mayor is elected via direct popular vote, not because their party wins the most seats as in a parliamentary system. You’re free to mix and match.
Which makes me wonder – historically, have we ever had a situation where the mayor was presiding over a council dominated by an opposing party?
DeWolf 10:05 on 2025-10-14 Permalink
Yes — Coderre. His party had only 26 out of 65 seats on council, while Projet had 20, with the rest split between a variety of smaller parties and independents. As far as I can tell he was the first mayor that didn’t have a majority of council on his side.
Kate 10:24 on 2025-10-14 Permalink
Oh, good point – I’d forgotten that.
Of course parties only appeared in municipal affairs here with Drapeau, as can be seen on the Wikipedia list of Montreal mayors. I don’t know how big cities elsewhere handle the issue of municipal parties, although I think in many places the representatives may be associated with parties at a higher level of government.
I’m very glad our city reps are not classified by direct association with the federal Liberals and Conservatives, or the CAQ, PLQ and PQ.
Camillien Houde was acclaimed mayor unopposed in 1947! Others ran unopposed in the 19th century but he’s the only one who managed this in the 20th.
DeWolf 10:59 on 2025-10-14 Permalink
BC is like Quebec in that it has municipal parties that are different from provincial or national ones. But their city councils tend to elect councillors at large rather than by district.
As far as I know, no provinces other than BC and Quebec have parties at the municipal level.
Montreal’s system of governance is most similar to London and Paris, but in both of those cities, local parties are offshoots of national ones. Melbourne and Sydney are also similar in that they have purely municipal political parties, but they are far more decentralized — as if Montreal had only boroughs and no central government.
Oh the Urbanity had an interesting video recently that compares Montreal’s political system to other cities. They conclude that the mix of boroughs, a parliamentary-style city council and unique municipal political parties is actually a good thing, especially when it comes to supporting progressive local initiatives related to urban planning and design:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpFpcEdrj3s
Tim S. 11:14 on 2025-10-14 Permalink
A bit off topic, but I’m always amazed in the UK that the strength of the national government is tested by local elections – prime ministers could be forced to resign because voters are mad about local decisions about waste pickup, or vice-versa, good local councillors are defeated because of a foreign war or something. Weird way to run a country.
MarcG 16:37 on 2025-10-14 Permalink
Thanks for the link, DeWolf, some interesting stuff in there. YouTube has been pushing that video on me but I’ve ignored it because of the clickbaity title/thumbnail.
CE 16:51 on 2025-10-14 Permalink
I find Oh the Urbanity covers some interesting topics but that guy’s voice drives me insane.
MarcG 17:34 on 2025-10-14 Permalink
Mute & subtitles?