Here are some candidates trying to change the face of Quebec City municipal politics

Sophia Laababsi had a clear goal in mind when she decided to run for city council in Quebec City's Plateau district: to carve out a space in municipal politics for people who don't typically see themselves represented at city hall.

"I'm here to make sure that people feel like they belong," she said."To make sure that if they have a voice that they want to raise, they can do it and feel comfortable doing it."

The Qubec Forte et Fire candidate, who came to Quebec City from Morocco 18 years ago, said she thinks residents are disengaged from municipal politics because they don't relate to the candidates who typically run for election.

Diverse candidates are running in all five main municipal parties in Quebec City this year, although it is unclear if this is a growing trend, because the provinceonly tracks the ages and genders of municipal candidates.

Dmocratie Qubec candidate Mba-Hadji Mbarewaye, who also ran for councillor in 2017, sayshe thinks things have improved since the last election.

"There are more racialized people getting involved in politics and that is a nice move," he said, adding the main challenge now was to get people of colour and Indigenous people to vote.

Mbarewaye was born in Chad but came to Quebec City to study at Universit Laval in 2007. He said one of his priorities is to make the city a more inclusive space for people of colour.

"One of my main motivations to run in politics is racial justice," he said. "I fight for social justice but also for racial justice."

Mbarewaye sayshe plans to work on fighting against hate crimes and racial profiling by the police, and on increasing representation in city council and the Quebec Chamber of Commerce.

How diverse are the main municipal parties?

Mbarewaye is one of two Black candidates running for Dmocratie Qubec, the other being Bertrand de Lpinay.

quipe Marie-Jose Savard says it has two candidates who identify as a visible or religious minority, and two LGBTQ candidates.

Transition Qubec says it has two candidates from a visible minority and four LGBTQ candidates, including one who is non-binary.

Laababsi is Qubec Forte et Fire's only ethnically diverse candidate. The party says it has one LGBTQ candidate.

Qubec 21 says it has one candidate from a visible minority, Stevens Mlanon, but no one from the LGBT community. Mlanon declined the CBC's request for an interview.

Mbarewaye saysthe presence of all these candidates isinspiring foryoung people of colour who live in Quebec City.

"Even if we are not elected, those young people are proud of us and we hope they can follow our example in the next years," he said.

Visible minorities made up 6.4 per cent of the city's population in 2016, according to the most recent federal census data.

City of Lvis could have its first ever Black mayor

The municipal race in Lvis, Que., onthe other side of the Saint-Lawrence river,is also seeing more racial diversity.

Elhadji Mamadou Diarra, chief of Repensons Lvis, is running for mayor against incumbentGilles Lehouillier, who has held the position for nearly ten years. If Mamadou Diarra wins, he would be Lvis'sfirst-ever Black mayor.

The father of two, whomoved to Quebec from Senegal 26 years ago, saysachieving this milestone is not the main priority of his campaign.

"It's a pride yes, but I am not taking every opportunity to say 'oh look I'm the first Black candidate,'" he said. "For me what is important is to really serve the entire population of Lvis regardless of where they come from."

He sayshe has been campaigning on the promise to make municipal affairs more open and transparent.

And while he admitsthat some people he's met seemreticent to his ideas because of his skincolour,he saysthe vast majority of voters were very receptive to him and his team.

"People are very welcoming and favourable to us on the whole," he said.

Dealing with Islamophobia and racism

Like Mamadou Diarra, some candidates in Quebec City have had to deal with incidents of racism, such as their signs being vandalised.

In particular, Boufeldja Benabdallah, candidate in the Cap-aux-Diamants district for quipe Marie-Jose Savard,was thetarget of Islamophobic comments made bythe only candidate of Alliance Citoyenne de Qubec,Alain Giasson.

Benabdallah, the co-founder and former president ofQuebec's Islamic cultural centre,saysthe comments showed him there is still a lot of work left to do to fight off racism.

"I was really hurt that there are still people who don't see me as a citizen, who just see me as a religion," said the father of four, who has been in Quebec City for50 years. He saysthe city deservesbetter than a party that tries to divide its citizens.

"Why create animosity because this person is LGBT, this one is Muslim, this other one is Jewish?" he said. "Never have these communities created issues for the city."

He says thatcultural diversity isa great asset for Quebec City, and that he hopesthe urban centre willcontinue to be an international hub where people from all ethnic, cultural and religious backgroundscanlive together harmoniously.

"It's up to us to build these bridges, to bring people together," he said.

Creating a space for young people and the LGBTQ community

Salem Billard, a non-binary candidate for Transition Qubec who uses the pronouns they/them,wanted to run in the election to show that people like them belong in municipal politics.

"Around all of my social media, I'm taken less seriously because I'm non-binary, because I'm young, because I was born a woman," they said.

It made them realize their presence was needed, they said."I need to show the world that we are still people."

One of their main goals is to make the city more inclusive for non-binary and transgender people. For example, they want to add more gender options on municipal forms, and enable residents to use their preferred name instead of their legal name.

This is the first time Billardwill participate in a municipal election. The 22-year-old had never so much as voted until now, because they felt no one properly represented them.

"I want to build a safer place for [the LGBTQ community]," they said. "I want to make sure that they feel safe about their political environment."

Billardsays their age doesn't make them any less qualified for the job though. They are an intervention worker, who has experience working with homeless people, survivors of domestic violence and people living with HIV/AIDS.

Quebec City residents will head to the polls on November 7.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of.You can read more stories here.