What's it take to create a political party from scratch?

Two new parties trying to crack Montreal's 2025 election with grassroots outreach and Discord servers instead of establishment war chests.

J.P. Karwacki

J.P. Karwacki

28 octobre 2025- Read time: 11 min
What's it take to create a political party from scratch?Leader of Transition Montréal Craig Sauvé reviewing materials with the party team. | Photography: Courtesy Transition Montréal

When the city wanted to remove a stop sign on Décarie Boulevard in Saint-Laurent, an electrical engineer named Olivier Labrèche—who'd been organizing around active mobility issues in his neighbourhood for years—thought this was backwards. The sign protected a pedestrian crossing, but the borough had decided it was unnecessary.

So he started a petition, and citizens mobilized. The borough didn't back down on the stop sign—they removed it—but they did compromise and install a raised trottoir traversant crossing to slow traffic and protect pedestrians. It was a small win, but for Labrèche, the lesson was bigger than the outcome.

By summer 2024, Labrèche had a realization: if a handful of residents with a petition could force the city to respond, what could a full political party do?

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