With Denis Coderre out, what's next for the party named after him?

Members of Équipe Denis Coderre are searching for answers and a new identity, now that the man who formed the party has announced, in defeat, that he's quitting municipal politics.

Denis Coderre made it clear last night he won't be sticking around after his historic loss to Valérie Plante, the leader of Projet Montréal.

"I want to say I am leaving with my head high, that Montreal is an exceptional city, that Montreal is a metropolis that is the envy of the world," he told supporters in Sunday's concession speech.

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But while Coderre is out, representatives of his former party will still have a significant presence on city council, with 25 of 65 seats. (Projet Montréal won a slim majority, with a total of 34).

Much can be expected to change, of course, starting with the party's name.

Shifting allegiances

On Monday, party members were not yet clear about what the new opposition will look like.

Several haven't ruled out joining or working with Projet Montréal.

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"If the idea is good and it makes sense, people will look at it and kick it hard," said Alan DeSousa, who won another term as mayor of Saint-Laurent running under Équipe Coderre.

DeSousa said the election result "was and is a surprise." 

Coderre was a polarizing figure, he said, who underestimated the simmering anger over issues like the city's traffic woes.

"That being said, I think if he were to do it again he would run a different campaign, that was more forward-looking," he told CBC Montreal's Daybreak.

'One-man rule'

Coderre, a former Liberal MP and cabinet minister, was viewed by many as an uncompromising partisan during his time at city hall. It was rare, the opposition often noted, for members of Coderre's team to vote against him.

Marvin Rotrand, leader of Coalition Montréal and a councillor for Snowdon, has been critical of the fact that no one in Coderre's own party would "stand up to him."

The election was essentially a "referendum on Denis Coderre," Rotrand said, adding that voters made it clear "they don't like one-man rule."

He pointed out that all 11 councillors and borough mayors who switched allegiances to run under Coderre, including Russell Copeman in Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, ended up losing.

Rotrand suggested the result could be interpreted as an indictment of the municipal political party system altogether.

Coderre's party wasn't the only one to get a shakeup. 

Rotrand was the only candidate from his party to win a seat on Sunday. 

Vrai changement pour Montréal, the party created by federal Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly, who lost her mayoral bid to Coderre in 2013, was entirely wiped off the map. 

Opposition yet to be determined

Marc-Antoine Desjardins, a failed candidate who ran under Coderre's banner in the riding of Jeanne-Mance, suggested that a strong opposition will emerge, in one form or another.

"Some will probably join them, some won't, some will leave, you never know, there will be some byelections here and there I guess," he said.

"Trust me. There will be another option in four years. You can mark my words."