Saint-Leonard—Saint-Michel

Saint-Leonard—Saint-Michel spans two densely populated neighbourhoods in the northeastern part of the Island of Montreal. The borough of Saint-Leonard, historically associated with Montreal's Italian-Canadian community, adjoins the neighbourhood of Saint-Michel within the borough of Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension. Roughly half of the riding's residents were born outside Canada, making it one of the most multicultural constituencies in the country.

Candidates

Patricia Lattanzio (Liberal) — Lattanzio grew up in Saint-Leonard and holds an honours bachelor's degree in political science from McGill University and a law degree from UQAM. A member of the Quebec bar since 1990, she practised civil law for nearly three decades and established her own legal practice. She served as a school board commissioner at the English Montreal School Board beginning in 2007 and was elected Montreal city councillor for Saint-Leonard East in a 2015 by-election, subsequently serving as vice-president of the Commission on the Inspector General.

Ilario Maiolo (Conservative) — A Montreal lawyer of Italian descent, Maiolo studied civil law at the University of Ottawa and specialized in international law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. He worked as a consultant for Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and later as legal counsel for the Canadian Red Cross, focusing on international and humanitarian law.

Dominique Mougin (Bloc Quebecois) — Mougin carried the Bloc's banner in a riding where the party faced an uphill battle given the constituency's heavily immigrant and federalist-leaning electorate.

Hassan Guillet (Independent) — An imam who gained national prominence after delivering a eulogy honouring the victims of the 2017 Quebec City mosque shooting, Guillet had initially won the Liberal nomination in May 2019. The party subsequently dropped him in August after controversy over past social media posts. He declared his candidacy as an independent, pledging to serve as an unencumbered voice for constituents.

Paulina Ayala (NDP) — Ayala had previously served as the NDP member of Parliament for the neighbouring riding of Honore-Mercier from 2011 to 2015, elected during the NDP's Quebec breakthrough.

Smaller-share candidates included Alessandra Szilagyi (Green Party), Tina Di Serio (People's Party), and Garnet Colly (ML).

About the Riding

Saint-Leonard has one of the highest concentrations of Italian Canadians in Montreal. The borough's transformation from a small francophone hamlet into a dense urban neighbourhood was driven by a massive wave of Italian immigration in the 1950s and 1960s. The stretch of Jean Talon Street between Langelier and Viau boulevards is known as Via Italia, and services throughout the area are commonly available in Italian, French, and English.

Saint-Michel, by contrast, is one of Montreal's most socioeconomically disadvantaged neighbourhoods, home to large Haitian, Latin American, and North African communities with higher rates of poverty and more precarious housing than the city average. The former Miron quarry — once the largest open-air landfill in Canada — was being transformed into the Complexe environnemental de Saint-Michel and Parc Frederic-Back, converting an industrial scar into green space and community facilities including the TOHU circus arts complex. Immigration settlement services, French-language training, affordable housing, and credential recognition for newcomers were dominant local concerns.