Darine Houmani- Montreal

Preparations are underway for the municipal elections, scheduled for November 3, 2025. The mayoral race currently includes five candidates:
Luc Raboin (Projet Montréal), Soraya Martinez-Verada (Ensemble Montréal), Jean-François Cacou (Futur Montréal), Gilbert Thibodaux (Action Montréal), and Craig Sauvé (Transition Montréal).

Craig Sauvé has been a municipal councilor representing the Southwest borough since 2013 and has served as the borough's deputy mayor since 2021. In 2024, Craig ran for the New Democratic Party in a by-election in LaSalle-Émard-Verdun and also in the general elections in 2025.

Sauvé served as vice-president of the STM from 2017 to 2021. Providing affordable housing has also been a priority for him: in 2017 and 2018, he served as vice-president of the City of Montreal’s social housing committee and as co-councillor for housing on the executive committee.

Sauvé has built his political standing by challenging the status quo. Known for his independent stance and outspoken advocacy for human rights and stopping the genocide in Gaza. He is pushing for bold reforms on issues ranging from housing and homelessness to democratic renewal and infrastructure.

In this interview, he reflects on his experience as a city councillor, outlines his priorities for the upcoming municipal elections with Transition Montréal, and explains why reducing reliance on the private sector is, in his view, essential to combating corruption.

He also shares his perspectives on electoral reform, sustainable transportation, and international solidarity, including his call for divestment from Israel. Sauvé emphasizes his vision for a more just, transparent, and socially responsible Montreal—one where public resources are directed toward the well-being of citizens rather than private profits.

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How would you evaluate your experience as a municipal councillor?
It was very positive. It's a hard job. The citizens have a lot of questions. The citizens want you to fix all their problems quickly. And that's okay. I accept that. That's part of the job. But I do my best to be someone who is very available for the citizens so that when they have problems or questions, I can respond to them quickly and address their issues promptly as well. That's a really important element.

What were the most important decisions or projects you contributed to?

As an independent, I have been pushing a lot of issues. One of my biggest wins was to get the city to pass a motion for high-speed rail between Montreal and Toronto. The federal government was working on a project for a new rail line, but it wasn't high speed. What I mean by high speed is I want 300 kilometers an hour.

I want to be able to get from Montreal to Toronto in two and a half hours. So, I worked together with other councillors across Canada, and we passed a motion in Montreal, in Toronto, and in Oshawa, which is near Toronto, in order to get a high-speed rail project approved.

You are running now for municipal elections this year with Transition Montréal, which has many plans. What are your priorities this time? And which projects do you consider urgent?
There are a few, but I should mention one would be to focus on fighting poverty and homelessness. To me, it's unacceptable that people are living on the street because Canada is a rich country, and we have the resources to feed everybody.

We have the resources to house people, but we choose to do other things with our money. I want to triple the budget of the city of Montreal to fight homelessness and to help people who are homeless to have a home and all the support services that they require. So that's important for me.

Another thing is, I want to do more public works by the city of Montreal instead of by the private sector. As you may know, a lot of the public works are done by private companies. That means road paving, sidewalks, excavations. And we know that we can do it cheaper if we do it through the city instead of paying private companies a profit. We also believe that we can control our work sites better too, because when too much is left to the private sector, they tend to shift their focus in ways that are not necessarily in the best interest of citizens. We call that project Infra-Montréal, for Infrastructure Montreal.

We also have a program of democratic reform. That is to change the electoral system in Montreal, to bring proportional representation. That means more parties in the borough councils. And we want to have the mayoral race use a ranked ballot. That means you get to choose one, two, three, four in your preferred order. The ballots would then be counted in a way that ensures the mayor is chosen more consensually by all the people.

So basically: fighting poverty and finding homes for people.
Housing is one of the biggest issues. Infra-Montréal which is doing more work in house to have better control of our work sites and also to pay less for

the same amount of work. And then the third piece is democratic reform.

Housing remains a major crisis. You’ve spoken about homelessness,which is crucial, but many people risk becoming homeless if rents continue to rise. Does the city have a role in solving this issue, perhaps by setting rent caps or proposing other solutions?
Absolutely. The city can do a lot. It can't do everything because the province controls many of the laws. For example, rent caps are under provincial jurisdiction.

But what the city can do is build more non-profit housing.

Non-profit housing, by definition, is made to house people affordably, not to generate profit for property owners. We want to build more cooperatives, more community housing, so that seniors, families, and students can all afford housing.

That's a really big piece, and you're right, it's part of preventing homelessness. There are a lot of families that, on July 1st, get kicked out of their apartments and have nowhere to go. That, to me, is unacceptable in our rich society as well. We have to make sure we take care of people. When you look at our party Transition Montréal, it's very much about this socio-economic agenda.

It's about taking care of people to make sure that they have a place to live, that they have the services they need, and that they're safe and secure. And some people live in housing that's infested with bugs or mold. We need to do more inspections to protect renters in such situations and make sure they are living in a safe environment. That's really important.

Well, indeed, the right to impose rent control comes from the provincial government. It's Quebec that sets that law.

So how we can contribute is by building housing that is not part of the private market. If it's not in the private market, then there is no incentive for people to raise rents.

Because the rents will stay low since the housing is designed to serve people, not to enrich landlords. So that's the best way the city can be involved in making rents lower and more affordable. And it's long-term too. We're talking about housing that, for the rest of its existence, remains cheaper than the market. And that's stable.

And it's safe because it's not owned by people trying to make money off your back. It's owned by community groups, cooperatives, or the government that builds this housing. It is super important.

You’ve spoken about reforming Montreal’s electoral system. At the launch of this project earlier this month, you said: “We’re talking about a British parliamentary system that is shown to be rather rigid.” What advantages would this reform bring?
In the parliamentary system, which is the system we have in the city council, one person gets elected per seat, and if they have the most votes, they win. But sometimes the “most votes” is not even 40% of the total. Sometimes it’s 38% or 40%.

With our proposed reforms, we’ll have more variety in the number of parties represented at City Hall because seats will be proportional to the votes received. Let’s say one party gets 20% in a borough, well, they will have 20% of the seats. If one party gets 40% in the borough, they will have 40% of the seats. What happens then is it becomes more democratic. It’s fairer.

And people, when they see that, say: “Okay, my vote counts.” Sometimes people want to vote for a party that is maybe less popular, but they believe in it. Then they think, they’re not going to win, so why should I vote? But now, with this system, we can say: “If you vote for the party that your heart believes in, they have a chance to get seats.” So it’s worth it. It encourages people to vote and brings more diversity to City Hall.

We will have different opinions in City Hall and not just one party dominating all the time. Which happens in Quebec and Canada. For example, with the CAQ in Quebec: they didn’t even receive 50% of the votes. They received something like 38%, but they have 100% of the power. They don’t even have to negotiate with the other parties. That’s not democratic.

So, we need more diversity in politics. And that means sharing power. And it means electoral reform. That’s what we’re saying. The way to get coalition building and new parties is by electoral reform. It’s super important. And it will create a better balance in City Hall.

You’ve also spoken about adding traffic-calming measures. Yet we see bike-lane projects on Montreal roads that worsen traffic congestion and, in turn, air pollution. In a densely populated and immigrant-attracting city like Montreal, can the narrowing of roads be justified, especially when many countries are expanding road networks to cope with population growth?

That’s a good question. In a lot of the central boroughs of Montreal, we have an actual mathematical problem. No matter what we do, there are going to be too many cars. There’s a physical road capacity. So what you’re saying isn’t wrong: to give more capacity, you’d have to expand roads. But if we expand roads in the central neighborhoods, you’d have to knock down buildings. And we don’t accept that. We don’t accept knocking down neighborhoods to build roads. So, the only way to do it is to provide other options.

That means more investment in public transit. And it has to be better quality so that people want to take it. Because a lot of people say: “Oh, it’s not fast enough. It takes too long. I have to wait for the bus.” But if the bus is more efficient, then people will choose to take it. If we have a reserved bus lane along a street, then it’s faster with the bus.

So you have to give people alternatives. That’s the only way. And transport experts across the planet agree: they build more bus lanes, and bike lanes are part of that too. I know change is hard for people when there’s a new bus lane or bike lane, but in Montreal right now, it’s more and more popular. Every year more people are cycling.

So what we have to do now is respond to that by making cycling safe. Every year, BIXI, for example, breaks records. It breaks records every single year for popularity. People want BIXI in their neighborhoods. And it’s a lot of young people too, but also seniors—more and more senior citizens are taking bikes as well. So in order to protect them, we must put in measures that will give them safe travel.

So there are those two things happening: some people don’t like bike lanes, but on the other hand, more people are using them. And yes, people talk about winter in Montreal, but basically for eight to nine months of the year, people are cycling. For the other three months, there are fewer cyclists, and some bike lanes are less used.

But generally, for most of the year, people are biking—even into December, up until the heavy snows. And then in March, they come out again. So it’s about protecting people.

We saw a woman who died at the corner of Park Avenue and Bernard. She was 30 years old, with her whole life ahead of her. There were no secure bike lanes. But cyclists are not going to stop cycling. There are more and more of them. So we have to protect them. Those are our kids.

My mother-in-law, she’s over 80 years old. She cycles too. There are more and more seniors cycling, and we also have electric bikes now. I like seeing that. It’s diverse people riding bikes.

You see people of all ethnic backgrounds. You see women in hijabs on bikes. You see Asian men on bikes. You see people from all different communities. In Montreal, cycling has become a culture. So we have to protect them.

That’s the way we look at it: we must protect the people who are actually cycling now.

We see major investments in infrastructure, while many of Montreal’s streets are full of potholes and often damage vehicles. This was highlighted in the city’s annual Auditor General report, and more recently, a cyclist fell during a Montreal race because of poor road conditions. Are there concrete plans to repave streets and improve basic infrastructure?

It's true that there are a lot of infrastructure problems in Montreal. The truth is, for many years—between around 1976 and 2010—we weren’t repairing the roads fast enough. We were repairing the pipes under the roads. Because whenever you look at a road, you have to think: underneath it there are pipes. There are water pipes, sewer pipes, wires, internet infrastructure, and telephone infrastructure.

Those pipes are beginning to break. And when they break, the road on top starts to collapse. As the road collapses, more potholes appear. So we’re actually very far behind where we need to be to have safe infrastructure because of 40 years of underinvestment. The previous governments—before I was even born—stopped investing in roads, pipes, and water infrastructure.

Right now, the city is building a lot. We’re doing a lot of infrastructure work, and that’s why there is so much construction. I know how annoying it is to have construction everywhere, because it makes more traffic jams, it’s ugly, it’s dusty, and it’s noisy. But we have no choice. So whoever wins and becomes the next mayor—whether it’s myself, Luc, or Soraya—there will be a lot of construction because the city is trying to catch up.

And, as I said earlier at the beginning of our conversation, what’s important is that I’m the only party saying we can do more of that work in-house by the city instead of by private companies. That’s one of my strategies. Let’s do more road repair by the city to save money and to do it better. Every time a private company does road infrastructure, they work at their own pace, sometimes as long as they want, and then we have to send inspectors to supervise them. That costs money too, and it’s less reliable.

I’d rather have more reliable work done in-house. That’s what we call the Infra-Montréal project: more work done by the city, less work by private enterprise.

Millions were spent on a bus line on the Pie-IX route with spacious glass bus shelters for the passengers, while many bus stops in Montreal lack glass shelters, and students wait under rain and snow. What do you say to that?

I agree. We have to provide public transit that’s comfortable for users, both buses and metros. I’m surprised that there are places without bus shelters. It’s a major bus line, and we need to have bus shelters everywhere.

There has been growing public discussion about corruption in the awarding of contracts for these projects on Montreal streets. How can you guarantee that your municipal decisions remain independent from private interests and under financial transparency?
We had a big investigation in Quebec into construction corruption between 2011 and 2013. It was called the Charbonneau Commission, named after Judge France Charbonneau. It exposed that the private construction industry was organizing to raise prices so that the public side had to pay more.

So my solution, again, is what I said before: do more work by the city. Because if there’s no profit, there’s no corruption. That was the number one recommendation of the Charbonneau Commission: do more work in-house, do more internally, and reduce the dependency we have on private industry. I’m actually following through on that recommendation. I’m fighting corruption with this.

There can still be corruption in Montreal, and we do catch people once in a while. Some go to jail. But the only way to really beat it is to stop relying on the private industry, where money can be misused. If it’s done in-house, in the public sector, there’s no money exchanged, no contracts to exploit.

What challenges do you face in achieving all your goals?
Well, you know, obviously there’s a lot of work to be done in Montreal. And I lead a newer party, but I think people want to see a newer party. They’re tired of the two old parties that have been around for so long.

They’re looking for something refreshing and new. So it’s difficult for me to establish myself because I’m new and I have to prove myself. But so far, it’s going well. I’m meeting a lot of people, I’m getting a lot of media.

For us, we’re moving slowly but surely into a position where we can win this election. I believe in our chances. Our main challenge is getting known. But I will be in the debates. I will be on TVA, I will be in the Gazette, I will be in all the newspapers. I’ll have my chance to convince Montrealers to vote for us.

There are many loud voices calling for the suppression of demonstrations in support of ending the war on Gaza. What is your position on this?

I have taken positions on international affairs. With the genocide going on in Palestine, we believe the city can do more to help. One of the things we proposed is divestment; disinvesting from the state of Israel as a way to put pressure to end the genocide. This is the first time anyone at the City of Montreal has said this. I spoke about it last week and made it a clear position: the city must take an international stance to save lives and to end the war.

It’s important to stand up for human rights, to stand up for people, and to fight against genocide and the murder of innocent civilians. For me, it’s very clear. Even back in November 2023, I signed a letter against the war. It was the first letter where politicians denounced the genocide in Gaza. I’ve been there since the very beginning on this issue, and it’s important to me.

The City of Montreal will show solidarity by boycotting and divesting from Israel, until there is a workable peace for everyone and a free Palestine, and until weapons stop being sent to Israel.

Preventing demonstrations to stop war would be anti-democratic. I support people’s rights to march in the streets to call for an end to the genocide and to stop sending weapons to Israel. We want to stop investing in Israel. We want a boycott from the City of Montreal. And with a budget of about $7 billion annually, if we can stop investing in companies that support Israel, we can have an impact. We’re not going to stop the genocide by ourselves, but international solidarity is the only way we’ll be able to stop it.

Recently, Valérie Plante has openly criticized you and is actively trying to undermine your candidacy. What is your response to her attacks?
I find it’s dirty politics. There was an allegation, and I fully participated in the process. I was found not guilty—twice. Two different people looked at it and both came to the same conclusion. I’m a good person and I’ve always been a good person. That’s why people stick with me.

It’s unfortunate in politics that people try to harm others in order to win. It’s very sad. All it does is discourage people from entering politics. But that’s not what’s important. We need people in politics to move forward. We can’t scare them away. I think what she did was really unhealthy.

What is your message to voters?

It’s time for something new. It’s time for a new party with new ideas. It’s time to fight corruption with our Infra-Montréal project. It’s time for democratic reform so that people’s voices are respected. And it’s time to tax the very rich and use that money to fight homelessness and fund housing.

*The images are from Craig Sauvé's Instagram