Former federal minister Soraya Martinez Ferrada became Montreal’s new mayor on Sunday.

Martinez Ferrada won the election by nearly 35,000 votes over her nearest competitor.

The leader of Ensemble Montréal now takes over from former mayor Valerie Plante at the helm of Quebec’s largest city.

But who exactly is Soraya Martinez Ferrada?

A political refugee from Chile who came to Montreal in the late 1980s, Martinez Ferrada was first elected to city council in Saint-Michel – as a candidate for the now defunct Union Montréal – in 2005. She held office until the 2009 election, when she was defeated as the incumbent.

The HEC Montréal graduate then served as chief of staff for Vision Montréal’s Louise Harel, the leader of the official opposition.

She then left politics briefly before returnin

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