The island of Montreal was well on its way to being painted almost entirely Liberal red as early results rolled in Monday night, with 15 of the island’s 18 ridings showing Liberals elected or ahead.

When parliament was dissolved, Liberals held 14 ridings on the island, the Bloc Québécois had two and the NDP one. (One of the island’s 18 seats, Honoré-Mercier, has been vacant since Liberal Pablo Rodriguez stepped down in January to pursue the leadership of the Quebec Liberal Party.) And as results came in Monday night, that red riding map from 2021 didn’t appear to be changing much.

Montreal-area Liberal candidates gathered for election night at the Société des arts technologiques (SAT) on St. Laurent Blvd., where thunderous applause and cheering rang out as Radio-Canada projected a Liberal government at 10:11 p.m.

InLaurier—Sainte-Marie, Liberal Steven Guilbeault easily defeated three-time NDP challenger Nimâ Machouf. Guilbeault was environment and climate change minister in Justin Trudeau’s cabinet and became minister of Canadian Culture and Identity, Parks Canada, and Quebec lieutenant when Mark Carney shuffled the cabinet in March.

Guilbeault said the results in Quebec reflected a shift among voters after former prime minister Justin Trudeau stepped down, U.S. President Donald Trump began threatening Canada and Liberal Leader Mark Carney was chosen to head the Liberal party.

Guilbeault said he repeatedly heard from voters across the province that Trump’s threats against Canada were their top concern.

“I’ve spoken to hundreds of people on the phone, and the No. 1 priority for Canadians is the Trump administration, the threat of tariffs, but not just the economic threat posed by Donald Trump, but the very attack on our identity, on our sovereignty,” Guilbeault said. “I think this will be the priority No. 1 for our government for the foreseeable future, which doesn’t mean we won’t work on things like housing and affordability issues and homelessness, but the issue of the Trump administration will be the No. 1 issue.”

Concordia University history professor Steven High, who has recently written a book on the history of the New Democratic Party titledThe Left in Power: Bob Rae’s NDP and the Working Class,noted the results disappointed many NDP candidates and supporters across the island, and the country.

“It was a bad night for the NDP and its affable leader Jagmeet Singh,” he said. “The heady days of Jack Layton and even Thomas Mulcair are now a distant memory. The party saw many of its working-class supporters move to the populist Tories, a pattern we have seen in other countries, and its more middle-class supporters move to the Liberals out of fear of the one-two punch of Donald Trump and Pierre Polievre.”

But NDP deputy leader Alexandre Boulerice, who has held theRosemont—La-Petite-Patriesince the “orange wave” of 2011, won a fifth mandate Monday, beating Liberal Jean-Sébastien Vallée and the Bloc’s Olivier Gignac, who were headed to a distant second and third place, respectively, in that riding.

Donal Gill, professor of Canadian politics at Concordia, said it was no surprise that Boulerice held onto his seat, even as the NDP’s fortunes crumbled elsewhere.

“In Montreal, Boulerice is such a well-established force at the riding level, his ground game and constituency work is so strong that he lives outside the context of what’s happening elsewhere in the city or the country,” Gill said.

The Bloc also faced disappointment on the island of Montreal Monday night, according to early results.

InLaSalle—Émard—Verdun, Bloc incumbent Louis-Philippe Sauvé was on his way to being unseated by Liberal Claude Guay, an engineer and retired president of IBM Canada who only joined the race on March 25. The NDP’s Craig Sauvé, a former Montreal city councillor, had made a decent showing in last fall’s by-election, when the riding saw an almost even three-way split between the Bloc, the Liberals and the NDP. Gil said he had expected Sauvé to do better, considering the heavy presence of his volunteers and signs, and the fact that Guay does not live in the riding.

But inLa Pointe-de-L’Île, a Bloc Québécois stronghold, Bloc incumbent Mario Beaulieu seemed headed to victory. This riding has voted Bloc in every election since the riding was created in 2004, with the exception of 2011, when the NDP’s wave turned it briefly orange. Beaulieu has been the MP for that riding since 2015, and he was pulling ahead of Liberal Viviane Minko, with Conservative Violetta Potapova heading for third.

InMount Royal, it was a tight race between incumbent Liberal Anthony Housefather and Conservative challenger Neil Oberman, with Housefather narrowly ahead at 12:26 a.m.

InAhuntsic—Cartierville, Liberal Mélanie Joly, a cabinet minister under the Trudeau Liberals, handily beat Conservative Margie Ramos and the Bloc’s Nabila Ben Youssef.

InVille-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, Liberal incumbent and former cabinet minister Marc Miller, survived a challenge from Conservative Steve Shanahan.

InOutremont, Liberal Rachel Bendayan, recently named minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship by Carney, handily beat NDP challenger Eve Peclet and Conservative Ronan Reich. Bendayan has held the seat since 2021, while the NDP’s Tom Mulcair won it in 2008, 2011 and 2015.

InHonoré—Mercier, the seat left vacant by Rodriguez, Eric St-Pierre seemed poised to reclaim it for the Liberals Monday night, with Conservative candidate Ingrid Fernanda Megni and the Bloc’s Edline Henri battling it out for second and third place.

Bourassa,a riding represented by Liberal Emmanuel Dubourg for the last decade, seemed to be in the bag again for the LIberals’ Abdelhaq Sari, while the Bloc’s Jency Mercier and the Conservative Nehemie Dumay battled it out for second place.

InPapineau, a riding held by former PM Trudeau for the past 16 years, Liberal Marjorie Michel was sailed to a clear victory, as the NDP, Bloc and Conservative candidates battled for second, third and fourth place.

InDorval—Lachine—LaSalle, Liberal incumbent Anju Dhillon held onto her seat despite a challenge from Conservative Alioune Sarr, who was in second place in that riding Monday night.

Hochelaga—Rosemont-Estwas held until recently byLIberal Soraya Martinez Ferrada, who announced in February that she was not going to run again so that she could take a run at the mayoralty of Montreal as leader of the municipal party Ensemble Montréal. Liberal Marie-Gabrielle Menard was leading in that riding Monday night.

InLac-Saint-Louis, Liberal incumbent Francis Scarpaleggia was elected, despite a respectable showing from Conservative challenger Matthew Rusniak.

InNotre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, Liberal Anna Gainey defeated her closest challenger, Conservative Neil Drabkin.

InPierrefonds—Dollard, incumbent Liberal Sameer Zuberi easily won the seat he has held since 2019.

InSaint-Laurent, Liberal incumbent Emmanuella Lambropoulos was favoured to win against Conservative challenger Richard Serour and the NDP’s Ryan Byrne.

InSaint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, Liberal incumbent Patricia Lattanzio handily defeated her closest challenger, Conservative Panagiota Koroneos.