The lack of civic empowerment is a huge problem

Yeah, municipalities are a creature of the provinces. Cities could have literally 0 power if the province decided to take them away. We're at the mercy of the provincial government and it's so damn inefficient. More so in Montreal than in Toronto since Montreal is way more different from the rest of Quebec than Toronto is from the rest of Ontario.

A major reason Doug Ford won was because of a perceived anti-rural bias from the former Wynne government.

And this is the exact same reason I fear the CAQ (Federalist but nationalist/populist and anti-immigrant party) will be elected with a majority here in October. The liberals are primarily a Montreal (and Gatineau) pro-multiculturalism, pro-bilingualism federalist party while the rest of the province is composed almost exclusively of middle-aged white francophone Quebeckers. Like Ford, the CAQ plans to punish the city by downright refusing the pink line before it has even been studied and is instead proposing train extensions to the suburbs. Oh and they also plan to lower the immigration rate and deport immigrants who will fail a French and "Québécois values" test 3 years after their arrival.